Lesson on Slugs

I think I’ve mentioned the difficulty we’ve had lately on our walks trying to avoid slugs on the sidewalk. They have diminished some because the rain has diminished, but now there are silvery slime trails left behind everywhere on the sidewalks to remind me that I wanted to know more about them. So here is Slugs 101:



They are “Gastropods” – from the Greek word gastros (stomach) and podos (foot) in the “mollusk" phylum, classified along with octopuses, squids, clams, oysters and snails. They have no visible means of propulsion and seem to just glide, although they are actually using muscle contractions to move forward.

But the most interesting thing about them is their slime. They produce enough of it to build a 'slime road' to travel on – basically so they don’t dry up as they go. The slime also protects their fleshy underparts from any sharp objects that they might move across - they can actually ooze their way over razor blades without injury. (Putting me in mind of the line from My Fair Lady: "Oozing charm from every pore, he oiled his way across the floor.") But the slime is also their defense against predators – they are just plain unappetizing to toads and other eaters because they clog everything up with their sticky, gooey slime. Yuck.

Just a couple of other tidbits of information – if you get slime on you, white vinegar helps to get it off. And chopsticks are the best tools to use to remove slugs from your plants – makes it less disgusting.

And they are REALLY disgusting!

(My sister was hoping we'd get pictures of them while she was here, but they are sort of low to the ground and not easy to take pictures of... so I swiped these off the internet.)