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Night fright!

(35 Posts)
Jane10 Thu 26-Jul-18 09:58:09

Last night at my 2am visit to the loo I spotted a dark shadow on the bowl just emerging from under the rim. A quick limp back to my room to collect specs and, on seeing clearly, it was a slug!! It waved its little horns at me. How could it be there?!! The loo was cleaned and bleached that day.
I managed to dislodge it with some difficulty (and a blunt instrument) and flushed it away. My previously urgent need to spend a penny mysteriously disappeared needless to say.
This morning DH checked over the cistern and pipes etc and luckily found no other such creature. But how on earth did it get there? Will there be more? and yuk yuk yuk!! confused

Teetime Thu 26-Jul-18 09:59:44

Euggggghhhh. I have no other words of support sorry!!!

MiniMoon Thu 26-Jul-18 10:08:01

No help with slugs in the toilet, but at present, there is a hen pheasant eating the wild strawberries that grow in profusion around our summerhouse.

Jane10 Thu 26-Jul-18 10:12:32

I'd be very surprised but happier to meet a hen pheasant in our loo in the dead of night!

Luckygirl Thu 26-Jul-18 10:40:35

We lived in a very old cottage and it was entirely normal to have slugs trotting across the carpets. But never in the loo as far as I recall!

goldengirl Thu 26-Jul-18 10:55:26

We have had the most ginormous black spider on the floor in our loo. I left hurriedly to get help but when I returned it was nowhere to be seen! Is it in the cupboard I wonder? Everytime I go in there I do a search of the floor and the walls but not the cupboard - yet. A slug? I could cope with that though I must admit it's a bit disturbing for it to be actually in the loo itself!! We've also had a surfeit of ants too but that's been dealt with thankfully. Where do these critters come from and why do they want to explore indoors when there's the great wide world outside?????

Jane10 Thu 26-Jul-18 11:03:52

We're in a 4th floor flat! It's been a heckuva climb up the pipe from the ground for that slug.

annodomini Thu 26-Jul-18 11:15:53

I'm told that slugs can flatten themselves and slither under doors that seem impregnable and have occasionally found them inexplicably in my kitchen from which I have promptly evicted them, with a dose of salt. However, one night I went into my small cellar (was coal hole before my time) and found three sizeable slugs climbing up my freezer. After I'd finished shuddering, I managed to collect them and dispose of them, again with a dose of salt. I suppose there is a way in underground, though I can't move the freezer to find it. I have now sprinkled slug pellets around it.
As for spiders, my niece, a confirmed arachnophobic, went on a course to de-sensitise her and can now actually handle even large hairy spiders!

gillybob Thu 26-Jul-18 11:22:31

My guess would be that the said slug (yuk) had been brought in to the house unawares. Either on shopping, washing, a brush, shoes or whatever.

HootyMcOwlface Thu 26-Jul-18 11:23:37

I think I have a slug in my utility room. I’ve not seen it, despite a good search, but there are trails across the mat each morning!

MissAdventure Thu 26-Jul-18 11:29:27

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

humptydumpty Thu 26-Jul-18 11:55:09

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??

MamaCaz Thu 26-Jul-18 12:00:37

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! grin

annodomini Thu 26-Jul-18 12:42:01

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. ?

Azie09 Thu 26-Jul-18 12:53:49

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.

Auntieflo Thu 26-Jul-18 13:17:35

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

Maggiemaybe Thu 26-Jul-18 13:40:15

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 envy 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? grin

pollyperkins Thu 26-Jul-18 13:56:46

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

harrigran Thu 26-Jul-18 14:11:19

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.

HildaW Thu 26-Jul-18 14:13:17

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!

Marelli Thu 26-Jul-18 14:18:18

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...?

lemongrove Thu 26-Jul-18 14:43:54

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.

lemongrove Thu 26-Jul-18 14:45:10

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

Jane10 Thu 26-Jul-18 14:56:14

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!!

lemongrove Thu 26-Jul-18 14:59:32

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