Slugs and snails indoors

While the RHS says that slugs and snails aren't pests I wish they would give us a solution for keeping them outdoors and not indoors. We grow orchids and insectivorous plants in a conservatory and a glass roof laundry room. Every evening just before we head upstairs we have to check both rooms and virtually every evening we find at least one even three. We don't like to use chemicals so they are collected and thrown outdoors. Probably a mistake as they may make their way back in! Do others find a problem with indoor slugs and snails and how are they getting in?

 

We had a problem in a spare bedroom. The room had a laminate floor laid by the previous owner ( it had been carpet ). This left a small gap around the skirting boards. I think the slugs were coming up between the gaps in the floor boards, then out under the skirting boards. We were planning to replace the floor with carpet again and before I did, I closed up the gaps at the bottom of the skirting and had the carpet laid tight up to the edge. That stopped them coming in. There were no plants in that room to attract them.

 

I often find the odd slug in my back porch, but I do have plants in there and they do get moved in there after being outside in summer.

I dont get them in the house though.

 

Our neighbour tells me that he often finds a slug in his kitchen with no idea as to how it is getting in. We have had them here, but we think they hitch a ride on the cats.

 

Only get them in the conservatory. Used to get them every night. Found a small gap at the door so dropped some pellets into it and theyve gone from there. Only problem is a coulple also get in from a gap in the roof where two sections of roof meet at a guttering. Cant do anything about it.

 

You could try putting copper tape around wherever you think they could squeeze through to get in, for instance under doors, loose window panes or other crevices there may be. The stick on copper tape is quite handy. I believe they get an electrical shock from copper and learn to avoid it in future!

 

We left our downstairs loo window open once to later find two 8in whoppers had come in and were marching across the wall. So I grabbed some loo paper to pull them off and threw the lot out of the window. I then had to go outside to retrieve the loo paper.

But I often see slug trails on our house walls glistening in the sunlight. They go all the way up to the roof line, but have never come in the bedroom window!

 

Remember its still legal to use metaldehyde indoors, both greenhouses and dwellings (and pres umably, coldframes ?) if control is necessary. Only sale and use outside is outlawed....

 

yes, but not as much fun as a pair of scissors!