Slugs like moist situations and live under rocks. Unlike snails, which hibernate during the winter by encasing themselves in their shells, slugs are active throughout the year.

Slugs are mostly found in the garden, where they can be a real problem for gardeners, chewing up their plants all year long, but they are often considered a bigger problem around the house.

Slugs in the home pose minor health concerns for humans, although they can carry all kinds of viruses and bacteria. They can find their way to your vegetable shelf and start eating your vegetables, spoiling them. Slime trails on the floor are disgusting, unhygienic and unsightly, and it’s horrible to step on a slug, especially if you don’t have anything on your feet! Since slugs feed primarily at night, they are often found in your home first thing in the morning.

There are two main ways to prevent slugs from entering your home: One is to create a barrier of some kind: a copper strip or something that slugs don’t like to cross, like dry sand, crushed eggshells, or ashes. The other is slug pellets, salt, or other chemicals. The caffeine in coffee has also been found to keep slugs and snails at bay. However, these pose the problem of poisonous materials that children and pets can find and it can be difficult to surround your house with eggshells or ashes.

The other is to block all means of entry.

Slugs can enter your home through holes under doors, in gaps between bricks, and through damaged fascia. These entry points must be uncovered and blocked with cement, plaster or wood.

A more common point of entry is holes in air bricks around your home. These are vital components of your house as they allow air to enter the cavity wall, so keep it ventilated and free of moisture, so it is essential that these holes are not blocked.

The solution is to cover the air brick with fine wire mesh or purchase a specially designed wire mesh cover that can be easily placed over the air brick. This will still allow air to pass through the air brick, but the fine mesh will prevent slugs from getting in.

Preventing slugs from entering your home is a much more humane method of slug control than using chemicals. Let the gardener solve the slug problem in his domain!