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 precisely 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.
Slug Control: How To Get Rid of Slugs in the House
In this article, I’ll explain various ways of getting rid of slugs from your house and garden so you’ll no longer have to suffer the squelch underfoot when you pop downstairs for a midnight snack.
To begin the cleaning process, it is crucial 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 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 is to 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 any slug slime trails are visible, you may get some clues as to where they are coming from by following them.
When you make a discovery, seal it up by repairing any damage or filling it 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 several ways to kill slugs that are inside your property, and I’ve put together a list of my top three here:
- Beer Trap: Layout a bowl of beer and leave it overnight near your house area 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.
- 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.
- Slug Pellets: These didn’t work for me at all, but I’m giving them a mention because they worked well for a couple of my friends – they used these slug pellets.
How To Get Rid of Slugs in garden pet friendly?
This section will discuss some of the techniques a gardener can apply to get rid of their garden of slugs.
Eggshells
Method: Break up eggshells and scatter them around the perimeter of your plants.
Due to the softness of their bodies, the sharp edges of the eggshells deter slugs from crossing them. Although a widely-known solution, I don’t know of anyone that has had success with this technique.
Diatomaceous Earth
Method: Create a barrier of diatomaceous earth around the perimeter of your plants.
Diatomaceous earth is a natural material consisting of fossilized algae. Like eggshells, it can lacerate the underside of any brave slug that tries to cross it.
Removal by hand
Method: Remove slugs from your garden by hand (especially after a shower of rain)
I wasn’t sure whether to include this, but in the end, I decided that it should be here, if only because it is the most common method of slug control.
Slug Pellets
Method: A scattering of slug pellets around your garden
Commercially manufactured slug-killing pellets. Although they’re pretty good at killing slugs, they can also cause damage to other wildlife, pets, and young children.
Predators
Method: Introduce slug-eating ducks or chickens to your garden or create a habitat that will attract other predators
Ducks, chickens, and other birds love to chew on tasty slugs, as do other birds. You can invest in poultry or simply attract birds to your garden with a feeder. Other animals such as hedgehogs or beetles will also enjoy keeping your slug population down.
Porridge
Method: A scattering of porridge oats around your slug’s habitat.
I’ve never tried his, but apparently, slugs will eat the oats, and it will kill them (please let me know if anyone has had any success with this method).
Beer Trap
Method: Bury a jar/bottle in your garden and fill it with beer.
Slugs are attracted to the beer, fall into the trap and drown.
The Best Way To Get Rid of Slugs
I’ve outlined some methods you can use to try to combat the nuisance of slugs. The ones you choose to try will depend on n factors such as your budget, whether you want an organic solution and how much time you have. There is no “best way” to get rid of slugs as something that works for you may not work for someone else – it is often a case of trial and error.
If you have any slug-killing techniques that you’d like to share, I’d love to hear them. Please email me with your suggestions. I’d also be interested in any other constructive comments that could make this webpage better.
