We're fairly new to San Francisco and are in the throes of an altogether foreign pest-control problem...slugs! Originally from Austin, Texas, we come from the land of large, flying roaches--which we thought was pretty much as bad as it gets. Until now. Living in a 200 square foot apartment leaves no room for invaders of any size, particularly those who creep in at night leaving a trail of slime behind them. We've been knocking on wood that we don't step on one on our way to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but have now decided to take a more aggressive approach...
While we prefer simply flinging these gross guys back into the garden, we can't risk the chance of accidentally squishing one with our bare toes. It is a matter of sanity, really. So we took to the internet to find the best slug prevention ideas, and here's what we have found. We'll be trying at least three of these techniques this weekend!
Deadline seems to be a pretty effective way of preventing these guys from infiltrating protected areas. You simply draw a line with this gray, liquid paste and slugs apparently cannot cross over. It is apparently not safe, however, for homes with pets or frequent wildlife visitors. If we didn't have our dog, we'd draw the line at the front of the house and ignore if they ring the doorbell!
Sluggo is an alternative product that is safe for use around pets. This product is sprinkled on the ground where slugs are active. We might try adding this to the small planting area in front of our front door. We wonder if using it in that specific area would keep them out of our house altogether.
Pesticide.org suggests using copper strips as a border to areas where you want to prevent slugs from traveling. We've heard of this, but never knew the reasoning. According to University of Idaho extension entomologist Bob Stoltz, “they cause a reaction with the slug’s mucous—sort of like an electric shock—and that repels the slugs.” The site suggests purchasing copper sheeting from your local hardward store, cutting it into 2-3 inch strips and creating borders around forbidden areas. Band tree trunks, apply to feet of patio furniture, and create borders around gardens. We'll try a strip at our front door and along the wall next to it!
We came across a random site, the Romborough Gardens Allotment Association that seemed to offer many alternatives to chemicals that we think might be worth a try. Among the long list of substances they claim will help with a slug problem if sprinkled around problem areas are crushed eggshells, talcum powder, wood ashes, hair, coffee grounds, Epsom salts, oat bran, grit, nut shells, pine needles, rosemary.
As we said before, we'll be trying a few of these solutions to get these little buggers out of our kitchen. Any other proven remedies are quite welcome!
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Pour some beer into a pie tin and they will climb in and drown.
tell me that's a poster I can buy. I LOVE slugs.
Not a fan of slugs in the garden but I'd love that poster in pic. 1 on my wall. Source?
Oh, I had no idea the magnitude and proliferation of slugs in the northwest until I moved to Seattle in 1989...
To a basement apartment, no less.
One morning I woke up to not only several 4 inch long, 1 inch wide banana slugs on my bathroom floor but also mushrooms growing in the shower.
Nasty.
and yes, the pie tin of beer really does work to trap and kill them.
I stepped on one last summer and some of it hit me in the eye.
regular salt should work too. at least, I know that if you pour salt on slugs, they die so I imagine they aren't eager to explore new places where salt abounds....
I have never in my life heard of slugs coming into the house. Crazy!
I use beer. Although I do hate to waste the stuff on the slimy little buggers.
Wow, I am so happy that mosquitoes and fruit flies are the only pests I have to deal with. I have seen an occasional mouse in my very old apartment but flying roaches? Slugs?
Gah.
In what universe do slugs come inside???????? I have lived in CA my whole life and never heard of such a thing! But yes, the beer trick works like a charm... but then, I guess you will have to worry about stepping in a slug-filled pie tin of beer at night.. EW.
A line of ordinary salt definitely works - good if you have pets to consider. Epsom salts are also good - but am not sure if that will play havoc with pets.
I lived in a house in Santa Cruz with slugs (fortunately not banana slugs) coming up from the floor. The dryrot was replaced and the slug problem ended. Maybe you should check your floorboards before assuming they're coming into the house, and not up through the floor. In any house I've lived in that was decently constructed, there haven't been slugs inside.
Oh, and my housemate at the time did step on one barefoot on the way to the bathroom at night. yuck.
I've lived in San Francisco my whole life and have NEVER heard of this problem either! I don't deny its existence though, and I'm glad I never had to deal with them. Ants, on the other hand, I have far too much experience with.
My first awareness of this problem was an episode of "How Clean Is Your House?" (Love Kim & Aggie) - and in one room that had not been cleaned in years the slugs had COMPLETELY covered the floor with their iky stuff and what looked like nest of eggs -it was completely disgusting! So, my only advice is getting rid of the problem now is probably the smart move.
I'd try beer in a pie tin (as mentioned above) before trying chemicals.
It really does work wonders.
SALT, use salt to dissolve slugs
Slugs and snails hate garlic scents. In France I'm able to get garlic-scented granules that very effectively repel slugs from my plants -- maybe try something using real garlic scents? Perfectly safe for animals too, which is why I use it. (I also like that the slimy critters stay alive, since they are great composters themselves. I just prefer that they compost something other than my rosebushes and flowers.)
Also, for those disbelieving that slugs come inside? I grew up in Oregon, and regularly had slimy visitors sneak into my ground-floor bedroom.
"In what universe do slugs come inside?"
In the universe of rotten sills, damp basements, mushrooms and other funguses including mold and mildew caused by homeowner/landlord negligence.
It's not the fault of the slug or snail that someone's house looks like a decay-buffet - but their existance within a structure is a sure sign that the house is in desperate need of repair and maintenance...
...and a tray of beer in the shower isn't going to fix that.
Just use salt. It's cheap and safer than the other junk. Honestly, they're not that big a hazard. Wear flipflops.
We had slugs (and, bizarrely, ladybugs!) in our old apartment in Oakland, too. It's pretty gross, especially if you have carpets. However, as others have noted, there is *definitely* something structural going on that's causing the slugs (unless you live in the basement---then I suppose they might be creeping in from the ground). In our apartment, it was damp, rotting wood under the stucco. So you may want to let your landlord know to check for rot, drainage problems, or other issues....most of which get worse the longer they sit.
Beer in the pie tin is what was done when I was growing up to great success. The salt trick now gets done more frequently with alot of success too.
Even in my daylight basement bedroom growing up, they never came inside. Spiders, on the other hand, did...
I have a pet duck that will take care of that problem ;)
Pet duck!?? :)
the last place i lived, in the mission district of san francisco, definitely had slugs inside (and was definitely falling apart...). rather than going out and buying up some copper sheeting, lay a line of pennies across any threshhold that you want to protect. it's not like you were going to ever use that jar of pennies, anyhow...
Slugs never bothered me until I saw a horror movie about them when I was younger. They were normal size slugs, IIRC, just tons of them. Oh and they had a taste for blood. Frankly, I don't like swarms of any kind, and you'd think you could RUN from a swarm of slugs, but you'd be wrong. According to this movie.
Make certain to leave about a half inch between the top of your container and the beer, so they reach to drink and fall in. If you leave the beer all the way at the top of the container, they'll just have a drink and slide away. A slug bar!
I grew up in the Pac NW and live in Seattle and have never ever had slugs inside that I recall and that even meant living in a typical60's era split entry home w/ daylight basement and 2 of my bedrooms were in that basement and even when I lived in older apartments here in the city, never had slugs but did have small cockroaches in one building but never experienced them again, that is until I moved to oregon and lived in a funky 2 room place w/ a shared bath, a few found there but in the bathroom itself and that was in 1995 for about 2 months. All of my other apartments were here in Seattle w/ no pests at all for the most part.
I did, however had to contend w/ the occasional line of ants coming into the unit I was renting w/ 2 other guys in Culver City and only after it rained after being dry for so long.
Born in San Francisco, raised in Santa Cruz and have never heard of a slug problem inside a house.
The suggestions about garlic and salt won't work because your dog loves garlic and probably salt too. I have gardened with and without snail bait. The bait attracts snails in droves so I don't use it and I don't get snails. Some of these remedies will get you slugs but, as the name inplies, it's merely bait and will get you more than you asked for. Like so many before me said, it has to be structural. Your house must be damp and musty?
Thanks for reading, Linda in Santa Cruz
One time (in Los Angeles), my husband and I were sitting on our couch watching tv when we noticed something moving up the door of the tv cabinet. It was a slug. And then we noticed a couple dozen other slugs all crawling across the carpet to the tv. They were coming from the yard, up the 4-step stoop, under the front door, across the carpet, to the tv.
It was totally bizarre and creepy as hell.
If you don't want to hurt the poor little guys, they really don't like marigolds (I'm in Vancouver so I know me some slugs) and most people here will plant them in gardens or windowboxes if they have issues with slug houseguests.
Aside from the duck, I also use coffee grounds in my garden. I think it is the magic ingredient to a happy garden.
cindycindy, that story is hilarious/creepy. Very Twilight Zone. :)
I'm with emmalazarus! I love slugs! I did live in an old Victorian in SF that had the half bath toilet out on what was really somewhat of a porch and the slugs would crawl around outside the door at night. I stepped on one once, but apparently didn't squish it... It had crawled away by the morning.
How sad that people kill slugs and snails though... I really think they are fascinating critters!
PLEASE DO NOT USE SALT TO KILL SLUGS! It basically burns them to death. It's really really cruel. Please just try to repel them. I don't want to step on them or have them eat my plants either but I would rather that than torture them to death.
I'm shocked that people still suggest salt as a way to kill slugs. It's horrible.
Ack! Another reason to stay in Alaska. Yes, we have slugs but never heard of 'em in the house. Used to live in Florida, Texas, etc. so I'm REAL familiar with the horrid flying roaches (shudders). I'll stick to our mosquitoes, thank you very much. :o/
I had no love for slugs before reading this post, but who knew the little guys loved TV and beer so much? That's kind of endearing in a Homer Simpson sort of way. ;o)
ew, what??! I've never even seen a slug in san francisco! poor little buddies; i love cindycindy's story about them crawling onto the tv. Anyway, don't kill them. As I usually suggest in times of questions with seemingly obvious answers ...... Google
Besides being relatively slug-less, another delightful thing about good ole Austin, Texas is that we have a minute amount of mesquitoes. Our thriving bat population won't allow it. Now if only the bats had a taste for cockroaches....
I've lived in a "garden level" (aka basement on a hill) apartment in San Francisco for 6 years and had never heard of slugs until I STEPPED ON ONE in my BARE FEET on the way to the bathroom last night and about had a heart attack.
SO GROSS.
Thanks for the tips. I think it came in the front door (door jab doesn't quite meet in that oh-so-San Francisco way)... I'm hoping to never see one again cause EW but will try some of the less poison ways to keep them from crossing in.
and ew.
I'm in Toronto, An old home, and the Basement... I stepped on a slug an hour ago...
I have tossed pennies under my bed and under my Vanity, in the kitchen I put down so much salt everywhere (Sorry Hippies, Salt!) that it crunches when I walk. Unlike my fellow Canadians I don’t drink so there’s no beer here... But if I did Beer would over flow from 30 pie trays! Thanks for the advice everyone. well, everyone except the salt-free hippies...