A tale of slug trails.

[chrisauk]

Help!

A week or so ago we started noticing small slug trails around the base of
our fridge freezer. They would appear there every other day or so.

We pulled the appliance away from the wall, checked under it, and then
sealed all the wall gaps behind it, to make sure that it would
not come through. Next day - more trails around the fridge.

Co-incidentally, we were about to replace the fridge anyway, and
we assumed that the slug(s) was living in the mechanism somewhere,
so, it would be gone in a few days.

New fridge arrived. We moved the old one into a coner of the kitchen, to take to the tip the next day (yesterday). Sure enough, yesterday morning, the trails were around the old fridge, 'confirming' that our theory was right and that the slug was living in it.

Anyway, we removed the fridge to the tip.

THIS MORNING ...... New trails. roughly around where the fridge was yesterday. Arrrgh.

Where the heck is this thing? how can we get rid of it? Why is it so clever as to only come out at night when we are asleep?

There's something else. The trails only seem to appear on a reed mat that we have. Its only about 1/4" thick, so I would not think that it can be living inside the mat?

Anyway, help ...my wife is going mad.

 

[middi]

Springle salt around the base of the fridge for a couple of days , that will get rid of them.

 

[thiambal]

Slugs are attracted to beer - real beer that is not lager - an old trick to get rid of slugs in your garden is to sink cups of beer into the soil - the slugs come along, crawl? (slime?) in and cannot get back out.

I am sure you could adapt this idea for the kitchen.

Let us know how you get on.

 

[Mark]

Get up at 2am - arm yourself with salt and ambush the slimey critters!

 

[chrisauk]

As mentioned. The fridge in question is gone. I need to know where the heck they are coming from so that I can spread some salt around. :?

 

[Mark]

The problem is that they can hide in tiny spaces, under the edge of skirtingboard, etc. They also move quite a distance - they're faster thn you think. Leave the lights off and tackle them in the night - before they multiply!

 

[Becka]

I dispute the real beer thing.. I obviously have chav slugs as I catch mine in jars of tesco value lager!!!

 

[skier-hughes]

I dispute the real beer thing.. I obviously have chav slugs as I catch mine in jars of tesco value lager!!!

Obiously, ours only go for expensive red wine......

 

[Becka]

I don't let mine acquire such expensive tastes..

 

[Matt Green]

As mentioned. The fridge in question is gone. I need to know where the heck they are coming from so that I can spread some salt around. :?

I've spent the last 2.5 years trying to keep slugs out of my house (and my wife off my back). They are less frequent visitors now, but they still get in. So far I have:

I cut the waste pipes back and covered the drain with a fine fitted mesh to stop them getting in through the sink.

Removed the fridge and salted the floor beneath and hacked off 0.5m of cement plaster whist I was there as the house is mid-terraced and next door is 0.3ish metres higher. More evaporation, less penetrating damp, less likely for slugs to hide there.

Pelleted the cellar steps. Then scrubbed them down with a wire brush to remove pellets, slug carcuses and years of accumulated grim supplied free with the house by the previous owner (worst job ever- I threw away a perfectly good wire brush as I couldn't face cleaning it. It still pains me).

Removed the nasty fittings around my nasty uPVC back door and plugged all the holes. Removed nasty plastic for good in the process. Door remains though. It's nasty.

Removed the vinyl tiles covered in water-based emulsion and hairy painted cat biscuits and pennies, then relayed with ceramic tiles. This raised the floor height a bit and pluuged a few possible holes. I refitted all the skirtings in the process.

Conducted several night raids on my own kitchen with salt.

Salted every slug I have found in the garden.

The slugs are still geting in. Intelligence reports indicate they are moving into the cellar, along the vaulted ceiling, into the sofit and out into the hallway around the bottom steps of the staircase. Efforts to plug holes are hampered by a fitted carpet which they can squeeze around. I really don't want to remove the sofit. *shudder*

Refitting the kitchen in the autumn, so I can remove more nasty plaster and throuroughly clean behind the units and block any remaining holes.

I've either got to get the sofit down and/or dry line the cellar, or move out. My wife favours the second option early next year. My list of exotic projects for the house is likely to be cut short at the fitted fishtank. It irks me that the cellar will almost certainly not get converted

Slug control: it's my nightmare.


Matt Green

 

[arl]

we also have slugs which i didnt really mind till i found a really big one crawling across my fruit bowl.
most seem to come under the backdoor, but ive had one come in through the window. it had climbed up the outside of the lower sash and then squeezed between the two wooden frames and popped out on the inside. They do seem to like it under the fridge though possibly because of the scraps of food that seem to accumulate - maybe i should clean more often

 

[L1zzy]

Urm My cats bring them in sometimes on their fur when they've been lying around out in the garden - then they lie around in the house....... Also I get slugs coming in under the back door but stopped this with one of those brush draught excluders. Slugs will be attracted to anywhere damp I suggest as well as foody bits. perhaps you could train them to just come in after meals clean up and then go home??

Sorry i know ,...its not helpful.......have you though of adopting some hedgehogs from the local rescue place - have you got a garden? I guess we share our environment with allsorts and have to live and let live?

 

[chrisauk]

I guess we share our environment with allsorts and have to live and let live?

Well when old 'Cyril the slimey slug' get's off his rubbery butt and starts making a contribution to our hefty mortage, I may just think about it. :lol: