How To Get Rid of SlugsTips & tricks for getting rid of slugs in the garden and home

NOTE: If you’re looking for information on getting rid of slugs in your garden, click here.

Have you ever turned on your kitchen light at night to be confronted with slugs crawling around your kitchen floor and up your cupboards?

That’s exactly what happened to me last November and after the initial shock, I set about getting rid of them – it took about of month of trial and error with different methods to banish them. In this article, I’ll explain various ways of getting rid of slugs from your house so you’ll no longer have to suffer the squelch underfoot when you pop downstairs for a midnight snack.

To begin, it is important to get inside the mind of a slug and understand how they operate. Think like a slug and your halfway to getting of them!

STUFF SLUGS LIKE

Mr slug likes the dark and Mr Slug likes the damp. That’s why you’ll often find them wandering around your house at night. Slugs will generally tolerate light and dry areas when they are are looking for something to eat, but after feeding they will return to their dark, dank lair. Talking of food, slugs are attracted to fruit and vegetable matter whether fresh or decaying.

CLEAN AND TREAT

So, the first thing you need to do to is make your house less hospitable to slugs. If your home suffers from dampness, get it treated by specialists as soon as you can. In addition, give your house a thorough clean to ensure there is no decaying matter that could be a feast for a slug (I found under the fridge to be a prime example of a slug’s banquet).

BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES

Next, try to establish how the slugs are getting into your home. Start from the location where you’ve seen the largest concentration of slugs and look for holes, cracks and crevices to the exterior. Is there an exterior wall? Are there any air bricks / vents? Any holes to the outside for pipes or cables? These are all questions you should be asking yourself as you search for the slugs way in.

If there are any slug slime trails visible, you may get some clues as to where they are coming from by following it.

When you make a discovery, seal it up by repairing any damage or filling with expandable foam. It may seem obvious to most but I should point out that you shouldn’t block your air vents! Purchase a new air vent that slugs can’t get through and replace.

SLUG TERMINATION

There are a number of ways to kill slugs that are inside your property and I’ve put together a list of my top three here:

1. Beer Trap: Lay out a bowl of beer and leave it overnight near to the area of your house that the slugs frequent. Mr slug will be attracted to it (after all, beer is essentially rotting matter, which slugs love) fall into the liquid and drown. You can also purchase specially-designed slug traps.
2. Salt: Sprinkle patches of salt around the infested area. Slugs and salt don’t mix and you’ll wake up in the morning to find lots of dead slugs.
3. Slug Pellets: Click here for some great slug pellet recommendations.

SUMMARY

So, hopefully,you now know how to get rid of slugs from your house. To summarise:

1. Clean up your house and treat any rising damp.
2. Seal up all entrances
3. Kill slugs with beer traps,

Following these steps will get rid of slugs in around 90% of cases. If you still have problems, you’ll need to call in the pest control experts who’ll work tirelessly to provide a solution – or get a duck. Ducks love to gobble up as many juicy slugs as they can get their beaks around