Slugs!

charlygal123

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Right I have a female Marginated and a female Greek tortoise. We have just moved house and our new garden so it would seem is a slugs desired holiday location! My girls don’t seem to eat these pests but they appear to like giving them a lift around the garden and it’s really annoying me! Every evening when I bring them indoors they seem to be covered in them! At least three or four of them on each of my girls! And I just wanted to know will they do them any harm? Obviously I pick/flick them off but they are driving me insane! I’m just worried invade they are causing them any problems I might not know about! I’ve tried googling but all I’m coming up with is if they are eaten! I’m also worried incase my neighbours have used slug pellets or the like! Any body know any info! It’s late here at the moment but tomorrow I’m going to knock on my neighbors doors (there’s only four houses here) and enquire about if they use slug pellets!
Any one have any ideas if they might harm them? Should I get a dewormer for them I did worm them when they woke from hibernation but that was in February and they get such runny poop when I worm them that I didn’t want to upset their system unnecessarily.
 

Tom

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Slugs won't harm the tortoise other than eating all the food. Eating large quantities of slugs might also do them harm.

Outside of that, I would simply manually remove and dispose of as many as you can. Try looking for slug traps on YouTube to safely eradicate them.
 

dmmj

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Salt kills slugs pretty good
 

TammyJ

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And don't put the beer where the tortoises can drink it...they may get addicted.
 

EllieMay

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Well that just made me chuckle! Gonna try the beer and don’t stress I’ll buy the rubbish beer (not that I’d know I don’t drink) tesco blue stripe!!!
And thanks for the info!

I have slugs catching a ride on my little ones too. Never see any on the bigger one but he lives farther away from the other two outside enclosures.. I started seeing more and more of them and dust a couple off the shells every time I bring the little ones in. Hmmmm [emoji848]
 

Pastel Tortie

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@JoesMum also lives in the Kent, UK vicinity. She would be a good one to ask as well.

I have heard that (food grade) diatomaceous earth works better on slugs than ants. It doesn't work well wet, though. If the other ideas don't work, maybe you can set up some DE barriers or try giving the tortoises a quick dust bath.
 

JoesMum

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Slugs aren’t a problem. They cause no harm. I used to find them on Joe’s plastron when I picked him up from time to time. Horrible to feel, but completely harmless.

You will only find slugs where it is damp... long undergrowth is popular with them. Joe used to try to mate with the slug pub, so I gave up with attempts at slug control many years ago.

Make sure your tort has somewhere dry to snooze as the damp combined with our (normally) cool climate isn’t good for health. I know the current weather is plenty warm enough and the storms resulting from it will be enjoyed by tortoises as they’re warm.

Have you seen my outdoor accommodation thread?
https://tortoiseforum.org/threads/outdoor-accommodation-in-a-colder-uk-climate.140866/

In 47 years with us, Joe never needed worming. Don’t worm unless a vet sees them in a fresh poop sample. And I wouldn’t bother getting it checked unless they’re losing weight. There’s an outstanding vet with tortoise experience in Maidstone. Mark Rowland at Trinity Vet Centre (near the hospital)
http://trinityvetcentre.com/
 
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Yvonne G

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Last night as I went out the back door to take Misty out for her evening constitutional I stepped on a slug with my bare foot. YIPES!!!
 

Chubbs the tegu

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Last night as I went out the back door to take Misty out for her evening constitutional I stepped on a slug with my bare foot. YIPES!!!
sorry for laughing thats hilarious! All this slug talk is making me wanna get my salt shaker and look for slugs lol
 

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