A Swedish woman said she has killed more than 14,000 garden-ruining slugs on her property since May. Hilkka Risberg, 65, of Gavle, said the Spanish slugs, commonly known as \"killer slugs\" in Sweden, first appeared in her garden about three years ago and she has noticed their numbers steadily increasing, The Local.se reported Tuesday. \"It all started three years ago -- and they ate everything. I began by taking them out of the garden but they just kept coming back, so I started to kill them,\" Risberg said. Risberg, who said she kills the creatures with a forked stick, said she decided to keep a journal this year to tally the number of slugs she has killed on her property. \"Since May 10 this year when I started the journal, I have killed 14,518. Not all from my garden, but also from a 500 meter (1,640-foot) stretch that the garden backs onto,\" she said. The woman said some people have criticized her for killing the slugs, which are not native to the country and first appeared in Sweden in 1975. \"Some people have told me it\'s cruel, but I bet those people kill mosquitoes and flies. I respect their opinion, but these slugs don\'t belong in Sweden, they have no natural predators. It has to be a person. And if I don\'t do it, who will?\" she said.