Night fright!

I initially wondered if my toilet bowl invader was a leech but it had horns. Yuk yuk yuk again.

That reminds me of a scare I had over 30 years ago. I was in the kitchen, and lifted the washing up bowl out of the kitchen sink to find a big black LEECH!! Once I'd got over the shock, I managed to flush it away, then got on the 'phone to the local Water Company. They were a bit dismissive, saying it couldn't possibly be a leech, they couldn't come through the water main system, but I knew jolly well what it was, and came to the conclusion it must have come up from the outside drain. Leeches can be quite acrobatic, and that is the only conclusion I could come to.

We too had a slug which used to emerge during the night from under the dishwasher - if I came down especially early I would find it on the kitchen floor and throw it out in the garden. When we did the kitchen a couple of years ago they found an old washer outlet pipe open behind the sink - not seen one since. I've never found one in the toilet though - good job you spotted it - I have a light that comes on in the dark shining into the bowl but without my glasses I would have probably still have sat on it

My poor DIL went to pick up a 'leaf' from her kitchen floor the other day - it jumped up and frightened her to death - a frog had come in the open kitchen door!!

lemongrove I will be checking the toilet bowl every time I go for the rest of my life!
I wasn't hysterical btw Alexa. I dealt with it and only told DH in the morning.

You used to be able to buy spider ladders to hang in the bath! I had one for years and bought them for the DCs when they moved out. For some reason, you can't seem to get them any more.

Like OldMeg, I do a dangle! Just a piece of string will do, it gives just enough purchase for the spider/s to be able to get themselves out of the bath.

The downside, of course, is that while they're in the bath you know where they are. Once they've climbed out .........

My trick with spiders in the bath (I feel sorry for them) is to drape a trail of toilet paper into the bath and let it hang down the outside. They are akways gone in the morning I know not where.

Alexa you are just too, too sensible! I know what you mean though. So long as I have kitchen paper, a swatter, a hard shoe, my marigolds or any other part of my 'intruder kit' all is fairly easily dealt with. Just not too over keen on things that move sporadically and unexpectedly!

Ugh I hate slugs as well, we live in the country and see a lot. We had been away for a few days and when we returned a slug crawled out of the overflow in my kitchen sink, I made my poor husband dismantle everything and clean it all with disinfectant. We get hideous orange ones here in France.

Isn't it better to cope with slugs and spiders instead of exhibitions of hysterical behaviour? Is it a cause of pride to be unable to cope?

silverfish also like paper ,dark places,old wallpaper,clothes.we put clove,bay leaves in places like cupboards or boxes of stored items.works great
also diluted cedar oil in a sprayer works for many of the invaders.

I bet you check the toilet bowl now, in the middle of the night!

That's a good point lemongrove long way up though!
I wasn't kind enough to trap it and drive it 10 miles away though!
Have thoroughly bleached several times today!!

I think the hot dry weather forced your slug up the pipesJane they like damp conditions.

We used to have slugs flattening themselves and squeezing under the back door ( in another house). They ended up eating dry cat food ( or giving it a suck) the door was a hardwood type.Here, the external doors are PVC and have not had any problems.
We do have a few silverfish ( the house is about 58 years old)
I think, unless you have a new house, you are bound to have a few.I leave them alone, they only come out in the dead of night.
Although I get rid of spiders the minute I spot them.

We live in an old cottage and often have slugs on the kitchen floor during the night. Oh, I cannot bear them and won’t go into the kitchen during the night. For a while, I even left the kitchen light on, as they only come in when it’s dark! I think they come through an air vent on an outside wall, and have read that putting copper pennies against these vents deters the slugs from coming through, as they don’t like copper. Haven’t got round to trying this yet, though...?

Perhaps its the same as spiders in the bath.....you think they have crawled up the pipes when in fact they have dropped from above and just ended up in the bath by chance....then they can't get out because the sides are too slippery....why I always have a bath mat positioned so that they can (our main bathroom is not used everyday as we use smaller shower room day to day, and you never know what might be in there!) Not sure how you entice a slug out !!
I used to work in an old fashioned play group many years ago....you know the sort that was in a 'temporary' classroom. Every morning we had to hoover up snail trails on the book corner carpet!

Gross ?
When we were first married we used to get a lot of blacklocks on the bathroom floor, they didn't half crunch when you went in at night.

Humpty dumpyy ate they 'silverfish'? Not fish but tiny silvery insects that scuttle/glide around in damp places?

We had problems with slugs, or perhaps a slug, a couple of years ago. Our dishwasher is as you walk into the kitchen and for about 10 evenings running we'd find a slug making its way from there across to the food cupboard opposite. DH would pick it up and sling it into the fields outside. We dragged the dishwasher out and filled up any tiny hole or crack in the outlet pipe, flooring and skirting board, to no avail. Then we tried putting copper tape on the floor around the dishwasher. The next night we found bits of exploded slug across the usual track and we've never had a problem since.

We still have no idea where they were/it was getting in, but have been told since that slugs have an amazing homing instinct and keep going back to the same place, so if it appears again perhaps drive it about 10 miles away and dump it?

Humptydumpty, could your silvery things, be silverfish? I remember we had them once, when I was fairly newly married, and they freaked me out.

We once lived in an old, terraced house and despite miles of sealant, they would somehow come up from under the floorboards at night. We learnt never to go downstairs in our bare feet!!

As regards spiders, I was 'sitting' (!) regarding the sink in the downstairs loo the other day and I noticed a longish, thin, black, stick-like thing hanging out of the overflow hole. Suspicions aroused, I blew gently on it and it was withdrawn into the hole, not blown but withdrawn under control! I ran away and told DH, who laughed. I look around very carefully now when I use this loo to make sure nothing large and black is hiding anywhere! Creepy crawlies, I hate them.

I also sometimes find slug trails on the internal doormat in the morning when they definitely haven't come in on my shoes. I don't know where they come from and - more worryingly - I don't know where they go. ?

That sounds horrible!

Do you remember when you could buy fruit gums that were fruit-shaped (I think - definitely in different shapes from the standard ones, anyway). The black one was very slug-shaped. My sons once played a trick on their grandparents. Just as the grandparents arrived for a visit, the boys placed one of those fruit gums down on the grass outside. Then, greeting the grandparents out there, they pretended to suddenly spot the 'slug: "Ooh, look at that big slug, Grandma!", then one grabbed it and put it straight in his mouth. The trick had worked - the grandparents were absolutely horrified!

Along the same lines, I'm increasingly finding what look like earwigs? silverish? in my bath! I have no idea how they get there - up the plughole??

I can't stand slugs.
They look like mobile turds..