Last year we had a few slugs in the kitchen, not many but the Mrs hates them and we’ve now got a crawler/toddler so I’d like to block off the source.

I can only assume they’re coming in through the airbricks at ground level (there’s two or three). Previously I’d laid some old copper pipe under a couple of them which seemed to solve the problem but it looks like the window cleaner has nicked it as it’s no longer there and one returned the other day (we’re terraced housing, gated alley and bolted back gate…even if a potential burglar had hopped the gate/wall I doubt they’d have noticed <50cm of copper pipe against the floor).

Will this copper tape stick to the brick wall around the airbrick or am I better getting some copper wire and weaving it through the airbrick?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2M-SLUG-COPPER-REPELLENT-BARRIER-TAPE-SNAIL-GARDEN-PROTECT-PLANT-POT-POISON-FREE-/181351975141?pt=UK_Home_Garden_Garden_Plants_Weed_Pest_Control_CV&hash=item2a396b88e5

Salt and eggshells.

Hmm. We went down the salt route and it gets plenty messy, plenty fast. Not recommended. Just be meticulously clean – if there’s nothing to eat, they won’t come back. In our case, we had to put the dog’s bowls on one of those metal stands, which seems to have done the trick.

Salt will wash away with the rain and I don’t fancy egg shells on the floor in amongst the slate chippings on the path.

Maybe I’ll just get some and give it a try. Mother in laws dog visits pretty often so can’t put down pellets etc. either.

flamethrower with a (slow) motion sensor.

Nuke em from space, its the only way to be sure…..

have a hunt around the garden, see if there’s a nest anywhere and get rid of it.
we had a big wooden planter (size of a kids pool table) that I dismantled last year and it was full of slug nests. the slugs disappeared overnight and didn’t come back.

What do slug nests look like?

nematodes?

For what it is worth we had this issue when we first moved in. We tried copper, salt, beer traps and it didn’t really work. What did work is a whole lot of slug pellets and the following winter being very cold (recorded -15C in the garden). Not been back since.

Nematodes was my back up plan.

I bought some slug pellets from ASDA a few years ago, and scattered a few in the back yard.

Didn’t make a fig of difference to the slug population, but I was picking up dead birds for about three days afterwards.

What do slug nests look like?

a big seething mass of frothing slugs.

Pet hedgehog – you’ll only have fleas to deal with then.

Bran. Slugs eat it. Bran swells. Slugs explode.

Having once walked for 6 hours with a slug in my boot, only discovered when removing them I can assure you that you don’t wanted exploded slugs in your kitchen. It was 20 years ago and I can still remember trying to remove disintegrated slug from under my finger nails after scrapping all the mess out of my boot.

Bury an open jam jar in the garden with it’s lid flush with ground level.
Half fill with beer. Slugs love beer. They fall in and drown.Empty daily.
After a couple of weeks they will all be gone.

OR, just drink all the beer every day until you stop caring about the slugs.

Copper tape does work but you have to find all the routes into the house – and how do you know that they aren’t already living with you?!?!?

I tried copper tape, but they just ignored it.

Checked your drains?

We had loads and couldn’t understand why. Found kitchen had been installed with no u bend on plug!!!! Buggers just crawled up

Will check drains but they’ve all been on the floor and no trails down the cupboards or across worktops. They seem to be coming from under the cupboards where the airbricks are.

We had this problem when we moved into our current house, Victorian with air bricks, slugs were coming in through the air bricks up under the floor boards and into the living room, disgusting.

I solved it by simply putting stainless steel wire wool in the air brick holes, put a bit of vaseline on the edges of the hole and spread the wire wool out nice and thin so the air can still flow through but the slugs cant get in, you can get it on the web for a few quid, simples.

Homebase also sell mesh grills for a few quid that you can put over your air bricks, just put some sealant round the edge so it lets the air flow but keeps the slugs out, did that to the air bricks at the back of the house, still notice draughts coming through the floorboards when it cold so the house is defo still breathing properly.

Any link to those Homebase mesh grills, catfood? We had the same problem in our Victorian house in the summer and I think they were getting in through the airbricks too. It’s a horrific experience to come down to the kitchen to get some water in the middle of the night and stand on a nice juicy slug in your bare feet 😕

Couldn’t see anything on Homebase myself but guess they’re similar to these:
http://www.mousemesh.co.uk/buy_mice_control_grills-uk.asp

Im afraid not I just found em on the shelves when I was having a look to solve the problem, they wouldnt fit the ones at the front of the house so hence the wire wool solution. I think they were about £6 or so.

They were plastic but those mouse mesh ones look like they would do the trick nicely.