slugs and guinea pigs bleurghh

[noyouhavehadawee]

due to the rain my outside pigs are overdue a clean, i gone out this am to do it and there are 2 mahoosive ginormous slugs in there and it looks like one is half eaten . dear god is this the norm because i have never had this in my 6 years before. Kids are freaking out and saying mummy go get the slugs out - no fecking way!!! I have a friend coming round at 9.30 but tbh i think she may freak too.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

[noyouhavehadawee]

urghh i hope they dont get a taste for them . Ive just read to put salt around the hutch - this is a first though i have known an odd snail leaving a trail bleurghhh. Its gross its about a metre long with a red trim urghhh - ok so maybe a metre is a bit of an exageration

[lljkk]

Maybe they're more closely related to Hedgehogs than we knew :).

I found Cavy cage infested with earwigs, once. Think I'd prefer a couple of slugs, tbh.

[slartybartfast]

i find huge slugs aorund my gp and rabbit hutches, i chuck em over the fence but they come back, i dont think they can get in hutch

[TheBonkeyMollocks]

...and this is why i like.mine indoors!

[ByTheWay1]

Take care - slugs can carry lungworm - not nice!!

[guineapiglet]

Hi - I hope I can help you with a slug problem having just left a damp, northfacing garden, which was FULL of slugs and snails so I have a lot of experience of dealing with the little critters - alot depends on how cruel/kind you want to be to them!
Salt is a horrible, cruel way for them to die as they dry out and ooze everywhere- more effective is to put sand/gravel around the hutch, they cannot slither over this - if your hutch is on legs, try and get some copper tape from the garden centre, they cannot get up that either, so you kind of wind it around the legs - if your hutch is low down, try and build it up with bricks or such like, they dont like 'dry' surfaces, so put some sand around the feet of the hutch, and make sure it is not against a fence/ wall directly so they cannot get onto the roof. Some people get copper rings around things ( like plants etc) as copper really upsets them....
Finally!! - They adore beer. We used to have a slug 'trap' with beer in it, the little critters go for the beer, get sozzled and then drown in the beer... a much better way to go than being salted to death! There are lots of wild creatures out there who adore slugs, and will eat them, but they cannot eat them if they are salty! If you leave food outside, even in sheds, they can get in to those as well, so leave food in plastic containers to keep them out. Just a word of warning, be very careful putting slug pellets down IF your guineas are out on the grass at all, as they can be toxic to small furries.

Yes, slugs are my specialities!!!! Good luck!

[noyouhavehadawee]

oh god, well my friend came round and there was no sign of big red slug just another one so its been exracted, i have sprinkled salt around the hutch, cleaned them out and actually as the hutch is a bit old now i have just ordered them a new one of ebay which iw ill build and put straight in their winter shed for winter - keep the slugs out proper.

[noyouhavehadawee]

Thans guineapiglet i feel mean now for putting the salt down - it was only a small pot mind/ I am going to get dh to grease the legs on the hutch when he comes in as its freaking me out a bit. Im major worm phobic and know they come out in sand so thats a no go.

[PickledMoomin]

I was going to start a similar thread. Tonight, I counted twenty (yes, twenty!) slugs in with our boys. I'd only filled their food up two hours ago and it's all gone. I took the bowl out to throw them away and smashed it because of the slim!

Mission slug removal begins tomorrow when it stops raining.

Am worried about lung worm. What are the symptoms?

[slartybartfast]

i spoke to too soon. there was a huge blighter in rabbit's hutch . eew.
i hope that when it gets colder they will disappear

[ByTheWay1]

Symptoms are heavy panting, sneezy type behaviour - like a cough, but different (sorry!) and bleeding that doesn't clot.. They will also get lethargic and have a tendency to just hide away (like they do with any other illness!) .

My mum's GP died from lungworm - the food bowl got infested with those little beige slugs...

[slartybartfast]

thnk i will have to put egg shells round the ground

[agnesf]

A further slug gross out here - picked up Beyonce from her outside house to put to bed a while ago and she had slug on her back - yuck - it was dark and instead of cuddly long hair felt fat slimy thing! I do slug patrol every night with long skewer I am afraid - stab 'em and throw them into beech hedge in hope that hedgehogs will come along and gobble up.

We have running joke now that Beyonce is wondering where her pet slug has gone

[TheBonkeyMollocks]

Can I just say that Beyonce is the best name for a Gpig.........EVER!!!!!!!!!

[agnesf]

She is quite glamourous - long haired and a bit flighty but has a few personal hygeine issues which mean that we have do do haircuts quite often.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

My boars are back in their Pighouse (as of yesterday) but when I was doing some tidying last week, I brushed down some cobwebs and there was a flipping enourmous spider that scuttled behind their haybox. There's carpet behind the haybox to insulate so goodness knows what it's up to.
I thought it was a mouse ,it was soo huge

And tonight when I fed them there was a huge moth round their light. [yuk]
I couldn't see the blardy thing to kill it, the light in too bright.

D'you think the spider will kill the moth?
Either one has to be preferable to slugs.