Slug problem - he's in the kitchen.

[Daveswife]

Every evening we find a slug in our kitchen. Either Mr Sluggy has a key to the door out the back and can open that and then the kitchen door, or he is sneaking in through the pantry. Or maybe he comes up between the tiles out the back. (Out the back, by the way, used to be the coalhouse and outside privvy - now it houses the boiler and a toilet).

Surely it can't be the SAME slug each night?! On Monday he was part way up the wall next to the fridge. Cripes!

Other than undertake a slug-watch, what can an isher do?

I thought of bunging up all the gaps with spent coffee grounds (which I collect from work). Do you think that would work? Or will out the back smell of mouldy coffee.

[invisiblepiper]

you would be stunned at the skinny spaces a slug can sneak through!
get a terrier - they eat slugs - gross but effective!
(Also eat spiders, daddy long legs and moths to date!)

[wulf]

Next time you find him, cut him in half. That way, it will be easy to identify if the same slug returns...

Wulf

[MKG]

Ah, but then you'd have to worry about which half was returning. Perhaps if you cut it in half and painted one half bright red ...

[LBR]

We used to put out plates of beer. They get drunk and die.

Or was it salt and they shrivelled?

Maybe both, in different decades.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

We used to put out plates of beer. They get drunk and die.

Can't be - this doesn't happen to me...how about leaving out some kitchen cleaner and a sponge for him / her? Your slug might be a bit like the elves who made shoes in the fairy tale.

If he doesn't do a good job, I suggest the salt approach: we can't afford passengers in this credit strapped era.

[pumpy]

Hello Daveswife, if you have a idea of sluggys way-in,try putting spud peelings around the place(they seem to like them), & then at dead of night,sneak up with a bazooka..........

[ina]

This is wonderful!

I had a regular slug visitor over the summer... No wonder, really, as I had the back door open at all times (cats and ventilation), and the bowl of cat food just inside the door...

However: that slug had to get up a few steps, and across a very rough doormat; and it was given a flying lesson every night, to no avail. One day I even found it overhead, just above the sink... It was huge, too. Hasn't reappeared since I've been keeping the door shut!

[Thomzo]

My mother had loads of snails in her garden. She threw then all over the fence into the field. She couldn't tell if they were the same ones coming back so she painted the shells with nail varnish before throwing them over the fence. A couple of days later she had a garden full of prettily coloured snails.

They come back!

Zoe

[ina]

A couple of days later she had a garden full of prettily coloured snails.

Did she take the nail varnish remover to them - or did they have to stay that way? And did anybody ask them first whether they agreed to the colour - goodness, there might have been a serious issue of emotional abuse if the colour was wrong... Say, a male snail expected to wear pink!

[Thomzo]

A couple of days later she had a garden full of prettily coloured snails.

Did she take the nail varnish remover to them - or did they have to stay that way? And did anybody ask them first whether they agreed to the colour - goodness, there might have been a serious issue of emotional abuse if the colour was wrong... Say, a male snail expected to wear pink!

You haven't met my mother! This is the same woman who, when I was a young child, told me it was socially unacceptable to take a red or orange sweet from a pack of sweets. I was nearly 30 when I realised that she was winding me up Talk about serious issues of emotional abuse.

Zoe

[ina]

[Flo]

I had a carpenter visit this here social housing flat to block access from under kitchen void via the cupboard containing the gas meter (just don't ask about the design).

They never came back for a year till yesterday I found one climbing in through the back bedroom window - remember this is a ground floor flat but back bedroom is actually second story (something to do with the slope of the hill). It took a flying lesson.

Ho hum. Just to let you know that they are not easily kept out.

[eccentric_emma]

I used to have this problem all the time in my old house. ugh. tried salting them but after seeing what a horrible death that was could never do it again!!! glad it wasnt just me with the problem though. i think thought it was mainly because we had a dreadfully built lean to next to the back door (where they were coming in), the lean to was just built on top of the concrete so they had a nice place underneath the floor to live.

perhaps try seeking out their hiding places in the light of day? thats what i do at the allotment, so why not around the house!