Well I did it. I stayed up and waited for them. I got myself in a box unpacking frenzy, tv flickering in the corner, torch firmly in one hand. I couldn’t risk disturbing their naturally dark night-time environment by turning the light on. No way was this going to get messed up. So I kept my fingers crossed that they would turn up as per usual, and made a deal with Boyfriend that perhaps we should take turns to stay up, in case they decided to make an appearance at 4 in the morning. But no, they were quite well behaved actually, they only went and turned up at half past midnight!
I couldn’t believe it. I shone my torch on the front mat out of habit, not expecting to see anything, but there they were, two little wriggly things. Totally innocent looking actually, much smaller than the ones I’d 1/ seen on the internet (horror stories galore!) and 2/ caught drowning in our beer traps.
We waited around, let them have a good dig around the mat – that is what they seemed to be coming in for! Hooray, finally an answer!!! We couldn’t for the life of us figure out why it was they kept coming back. The answer to that is that they seemed to find ample food in between the hair of the mat. They kept burying their little heads in there. I could practically hear them smacking their antennas in delight.
So after cooing over them –
aren’t they small, aren’t they not scary at all!! – we decided it was time for action. One of them seemed to make a move for the sides of the mat – an exit perhaps? Yep, totally. So before it vanished down the side boards, I used a couple of bamboo sticks to pick it up and drop it in the beer. As the next one moved a little bit later and headed for the same direction, beer came to the rescue once again. They may have provided us with answers, but we weren’t going to let them get away with it.
Our next move? Go to bed. After that? Well, we removed their source of food (yummy old dirty foot mat!) and spent a few pennies in a large DIY store to get some supplies. We used some sealant around the entire area of the front porch where there were clearly gaps between the flooring and the walls and waited for a miracle.
A miracle which has indeed happened since. No more slugs in the front of the house!!! Go us!! We were so pleased, and rather relieved too. No they’re not supernatural monsters who come and slurp on our floors during the night for no reason. They’re looking for food and they come in through tiny cracks. Fill the cracks and they’re gone!
We still plan on getting air brick covers (any suppliers anyone? We’ve found some on the internet but they’re rather pricey…). Getting them covered seemed to stop the problem in the kitchen at the back for a while. They have occasionally come back since, but that could be due to the tape coming off the walls slightly, or them finding another entry point – not hard in a kitchen where there are a lot of gaps for services.
So there, the fight isn’t over yet but we’ve done pretty well so far. We haven’t won the war yet, but we’ve totally won a major battle.
For any of you out there who have a similar problem, I cannot recommend enough staying up to see where they’re coming from/ where they try and leave from. That was the best thing we ever did and helped us solve the problem quickly enough. Ok it means you might have a late night, but it’s oh-so-worth it.
