The first slug of April came in through the door,
With a bright silver trail winding over the floor.
I felt a bit mean taking it back outside,
Though I know it will find somewhere leafy to hide.
I’m not fond of slugs in the garden at best
Their voracious appetite makes them a pest.
When they transform my hostas to fragile green lace
And their presence is visible all round the place.
And then they come in through the door with the mutt
Where I risk an encounter and find them barefoot…
It’s bad enough squashing a creature at all
Without feeling it squish between insole and ball.
The hedgehogs will be glad to find them, I know,
Now they’re un-hibernated, well after the snow.
(The small dog hates hedgehogs, since, feeling quite brave,
She found spiky balls that curl up misbehave
By sticking their spines in a soft, tender nose
…Though I think she learned fast she cannot play with those).
But still, the first slug, now evicted once more,
Had come as a messenger in through the door,
He’d woken from winter, a message to bring…
The rain’s getting warmer, it’s finally spring.
Slugfest – All you never wanted to know about slugs
The Two-Feather Slug – The insidious stealth of the legless invaders
Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
Waiting for them to show up here. Hope they don’t cause you too much trouble.
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With Ani insisting on the back door being open into the garden all day, I get a good few making their way in.
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I’ve never really heard of slugs going into houses. What attracts them?
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I have no idea, I wouldn’t have though t they would have liked the feel of the carpet, but they manage to get up over the threshold and in somehow.
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Horrid things! Love the poem, though!
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There will now be a running battle…or a crawling one.. about whether or not they get to come in 🙂
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I think it’s the ONE thing we don’t have much of here. We have, however, EVERYTHING else. I do mean everything.
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Probably far more than we do 🙂
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I love the quirky humor in your poem, Sue. Although slugs are not the most appealing of creatures, I always feel a bit sorry for them since they look like snails that have been evicted. In addition, I don’t have a garden, so I don’t have the same instinctive hatred of them that some of my blogging friends do. It’s sad to think of them being munched on by hedgehogs. (Obviously, I’m talking about the slugs being munched on by hedgehogs, not my fellow bloggers.)
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All part of the food chain, including my hostas. They are fascinating creatures when you look into them…online, not physically ….
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Great poem Sue! I remember one of my university accommodation houses… The day we moved in, after the long summer break, we were greeted with slug trails all over the ground floor, shiny laced trails all over! They even looked like they had been going upstairs!!! And (gagging) we actually found one on the kitchen counter!!!
I know it’s cruel but a housemate of mine took great delight in using salt! Poor things!
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I have horror stories of my own after we’d had a long-term, sluggish leak in the water system under the floorboards…
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Ewwwwwwww!!!!!
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Yep…
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Reblogged this on Anita Dawes & Jaye Marie.
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Delightful, Sue. We don’t have slugs but black ants!
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At least I can catch the slugs… 😉
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A delightful and witty poem.
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Thank you 🙂
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Love this, but, ick, squashed underfoot?! LOL!! I can feel it and hear it!
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Barefoot. Avoid the image like the plague 😉
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