Adding some decaying fruit underneath a board in a damp area will also draw … Keep plants spaced apart so that air can circulate between them, and water early in the day so extra moisture has time to evaporate before nightfall when the slugs come out to feast. They are attracted to kitchens, pantries, and even dog food. Tricia shows you how to get rid of those slimy lettuce munchers organically. Pellets applied where slugs are likely to hide is the very best way to control slugs and snails. Copyright © 2021 Acton Media Inc. All rights reserved. Replace or refit your … Try a slug bait, this (again) isn’t a long-term solution and may only work for a few people however, you can get slug bait which will entice the slugs to come to the bait, eat what is provided (the bait is poisonous to the slugs), they will then crawl away to die. Not only will the slugs stay away, but you can also reuse the copper flashing for several years to come. Change your … filler to fill small to medium cracks. Try snaring the slugs in a beer trap, for example. They also have no bones at all in their body, which means they can get through tiny cracks and holes in the smallest places throughout your home. Just think about how many slugs are in your garden and in fields and how many may have got into things like salad leaves without you knowing. Even just a small gap in the outside wall where you can stop slugs getting in your … People have even shown that slugs can get themselves through cracks less than half as small as they are! Out in the garden, however, they provide food for a whole host of animal including birds and even worms. Slugs and snails can be a serious pest of lettuce, greens and seedlings. It can be toxic to plants so you have to be careful. If you have an earwig infestation in your well, try to remove as many as possible, placing them in a bucket of soapy water to kill them. Create a barrier around your beloved garden by surrounding it with 4- to 6-inch copper flashing, or by wrapping susceptible plants with copper tape. They will identify it for you. For the most part, slugs thrive in highly moist environments. The best method for getting rid of the slugs already in your house is to use tissue (kitchen roll is best) to pick up the slugs and take them outside of your house, placing them back in the grass or road away from your garden and front door. Seal any holes or cracks a silicone or sealant. Trap The Slugs… If you’re feeling particularly vengeful, gather your salt shaker and a flashlight, and venture out at night for some real slug hunting. It seems gruesome, but this solution is very effective. Slugs like beer as much as they like the leafy greens of your garden plants. Kill and dispose of the mollusks manually. When you’re trying to figure out how to get rid of slugs, remember there are multiple methods to use. Thankfully, slugs are very predictable animals, and they move pretty slowly too. As they are sticky, and they glide on surfaces, they can also take a vertical or upside down approach to getting into your home, therefore just because a hole is in the ceiling doesn’t mean to say that a slug won’t get in from there. Try to stay away from salt if you can (as it kills them) although you can make salt trails that they will avoid as they know it kills them, however, pouring salt straight onto them will slowly kill them. By Jennifer Noonan. Write CSS OR LESS and hit save. There are various methods you can try to get rid of the slugs in your house, however, the bad news is that the ones that are already in your house will have to either be picked up and taken out or killed using salt or toxic powder. Below are some tips you can use to control the slug population in your garden. use tissue (kitchen roll is best) to pick up the slugs and take them outside of your house, placing them back in the grass or road away from your garden and front door How to Get Rid of Slugs from Your House: Try These Tips... Can You Vacuum Fake Grass? Wood ashes have the bonus benefit of adding potassium to your soil and raising the pH, so consider choosing that method as your first line of defense. After you have done this you can use any of the following methods to prevent them from ever coming back! Watch our video below to learn more. If your outdoor spaces have been overrun, try one of these methods for deterring and eliminating slugs. Disclosure: BobVila.com participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for publishers to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Most of the time, the reason behind finding slugs in your house will be due to the fact that they’ve smelt something they like on your porch or hallway (such as dog food) and have proceeded to slide into your home. Mix vinegar with equal … Crack open a beer and pour it into a few margarine tubs, then distribute the containers in various places around the yard, burying Wear old … Copper creates an unpleasant electrical shock when slugs come into contact with it, which will deter them from passing. We live in an old Victorian-era home, and we often find slugs inside the house (yuk). Whatever you do though, make sure slug pellets are kept away from any youg children. Use killing substances, chemicals, and pesticides. CTRL + SPACE for auto-complete. Slugs have an amazing sense of smell, and this is something to look out for. Getting rid of earwigs can be tricky since they are nocturnal. Common entry and exit points for slugs include under doors, joints along walls (if they’re not tightly sealed), dryer ducts or holes for any electric wiring, and if there are holes in the floor for any water or gas pipes. This could be in various cabinets, vents, or pipes. Expert advice from Bob Vila, the most trusted name in home improvement, home remodeling, home repair, and DIY. To try and get rid of them once and for all, I did some research on some of the methods you can use. Dispose of the containers the next morning in your trash or compost bin. sacrifice a mug or two of your strong beer and put it in a bowl in your lawn or house. Sometimes potted plants may seem to be ant and slug magnets, but you can control infestations with barriers, traps and pesticides. It is going to take some work, that’s for sure. Use bait. Are slugs harmful? Just follow the slime trail back to the outside … Next time you snack on a citrus fruit like grapefruit or orange, unpeel the rind carefully so you can keep one bowl-shaped half in tact. For another creative way to get rid of slugs, try using Coca-Cola! If a predator doesn’t get to them first, collect the fruit scraps the next morning and kill any live slugs by dumping them into a container of soapy water. One of the best preventative measures you can take is to make sure your garden does not stay overly wet. We would only recommend this as a last resort, the salt trails can sometimes even attract the slugs as they won’t initially realise it can kill them until they are really close to it. And as luck would have it, they mainly seem to get into the kitchen. Slugs are not really useful for much once inside your house. Use barriers and repellents. No, not even if you have eaten them. It is very surprising how small of a crack or hole slugs can actually use as an entry point, which may be the reason you don’t think there is a cause to your slug infestation, when in fact there is! There are certain steps you can take to get rid of slugs once they have invaded your house, but finding their method of entry can be a little more tricky. Use this to your advantage by sprinkling wood ashes, diatomaceous earth, gravel, or lava rock in a wide band around individual plants—or the entire garden—to discourage slugs, as they won’t want to crawl across the bumpy barrier. If you’ve found slugs in kitchen cupboards or trails on pantry shelves, you can use these tips to get rid of slugs in the house and prevent a future slug infestation. You may be lucky enough to find an obvious hole. Keep in mind that this trick will only deter the slugs—not kill existing varieties. A slug’s Achilles ankle is its soft body, easily irritated by sharp or dry materials. You don’t have to do a lot of searching to find the slug highway that is bringing them into your house. 9 Ways to Get Rid of Snails and Slugs in Your House and Garden. Mesh on air vents and consider brushing or rubber strips on doors. Fix any water leaks as the damp can attract the slugs. Can You Vacuum Pack a Duvet? If you have any rather large holes or cracks you may have to get them professionally sorted out as these methods will normally only work for smaller problems, you have in your home. How To Get Rid Of Slugs In And Out Of A House. The slugs will be attracted to the scent, crawl into the tubs, and drown overnight. Even the smallest slugs play a big role in the ecosystem, feeding on decomposing matter and in turn providing protein for wild critters like raccoons and chipmunks. KILL There are several ways you can kill the slugs. Slugs typically turn up during the rainy months and will more likely appear when there has been heavy rainfall the night or day before. Employ biological methods. Check under them each day and get rid of any slugs you find. Seal up any holes with a silicone sealant. Having looked at a number of methods here is are the 4 main methods of removing slugs from your house: I really don’t like (in fact, hate) finding slugs in our house, especially the slimy trails they leave around, and I’ve tried most of the methods listing here to get rid of them. Are slugs good for anything? Place a thin strip of copper foil tape along the area in which they normally go in and out, for some reason, slugs won’t cross the copper line, and therefore won’t come into your house again! Follow these simple tips to trap and discourage earwigs. However, this isn’t an ideal method if you have any other pets such as a dog or cat. This makes them very easy to control. Grow snail and slug-resistant plants. Use traps. Its also good to know how and why slugs get into houses in the first place, so over time you’ll have far less to deal with. Just be cautious when dispensing salt, as an abundance of the seasoning can harm your plants and soil. A good sealant will fill up any cracks and holes throughout your house and stay set for quite a while, therefore preventing, Sort out any water leaks you may have in your house as this is a common reason. Sprinkle a little salt on every slug you see; it will draw the water out of it’s watery body, causing the creature to dry up. I get slugs in my house as well, and they also seem to sneak out in the night because I usually only see their trails (even on the carpets! The sweet scent will lure slugs in, distracting them from their usual meal: your plants. Crack open a beer and pour it into a few margarine tubs, then distribute the containers in various places around the yard, burying them so that about an inch remains above ground. Jennifer Noonan, 18 Home Office Items for Optimal Ergonomics and Productivity, The Dos and Don'ts of Air-Drying Everything You Own, 5 Ways to Prevent Cracks in Concrete—and 1 Easy Fix. If you want to use the salt method then this requires pouring table salt onto the slug or around them, this will kill the slug and leave a big slimy mess afterwards so we would recommend not using this method if you want a clean and quick method. What’s Best for Artificial Lawns? The new generation of slug baits is effective, tasty to slugs and best of all not toxic to children, pets and … Plants or herb pots can also be the reason for regular visits by the slugs. If your house is full of pet food scents, slugs may often make their way into your house. I thought it was because it's an old, damp house with wooden floors, but i've recently seen a trail at the back of my fireplace in a room where there is a concrete floor (the slugs would get … You should also check for any holes, gaps, or small joints which slugs could use to get in and out of in the future. If you have a slug infestation like I do, you might have thought about using slug pellets or doing late night hunts for our slippery friends. These traps typically … There are a lot of good brands out there that aren’t too expensive such as Everbuild and Unibond. For a similar reason, people don’t tend to use toxic powders anymore as it can seriously harm other pets or babies in the house if it is accidentally consumed. But however important these slimy creatures may be, that doesn’t make it any more pleasant when we find them noshing on the plants we worked so hard to grow in our gardens. Using copper foil on entry and exit points. Use a torchlight in a dark room to see where the slug trails are, this will lead you to the entry and exit points of the slugs. Repeat daily until the slugs are gone. Some good practices to get rid of slugs … You can drop them in a bucket of soapy water, pour salt on them, and spray them with vinegar or diluted ammonia. There have been situations in which these pets have got very ill from consuming the bait. Poke a hole that’s large enough for a slug to fit through, and then sit the fruit upside down like a dome in your garden. How to Get Rid of Ants & Slugs in My Potted Plants. Plus 5 Storage Alternatives. You agree that BobVila.com may process your data in the manner described by our Privacy Policy. As such, when you get up in the morning to check your garden plants, the chewed up leaves and stem is an indication that snails and slugs had been busy at night in your garden. They are more likely to come on rainy nights as their sense of smell maximizes on these days. Vinegar is another great remedy to get rid of slugs from your garden, but make sure you do not ruin your plants with it. Slugs and snails are usually active at night.