Terrestrial Gastropod Mollusc

Ha ha, I fooled ya, I knew you wouldn't open up a blog with a picture of slug prominently displayed!
 However since you are here, I hope you enjoy this picture of my red and yellow lilies that are blooming today. By the way, the red lily is a transplant from Clare's pond from Gold Hill. Love them both!

OK, onto the main subject of today's blog, Terrestrial Gastropod Mollusc, the lowly and much maligned land slug. The bane of many a gardener, lol. Slugs are basically shell less snails. Different varieties live in the ocean are know as Sea Slugs, others live in fresh water, known as Fresh Water Slugs, and the ones we know best are the land snails, ie: Slugs.
But what do we really know about them? We know they love and devour our precious decorative and vegetative plants. I swear I have a dedicated colony that attack my ripening strawberries nightly! Their role in the ecosystem is garbage eater, ie: decaying or dead plant materials but of course as we know, they also eat fresh produce too. I've even observed them munching on fresh dog poo! Eeeww!
 What about the slime they produce? I know you really want to know! Slugs produce two types of mucus: one is thin and watery, and the other thick and sticky. Both kinds are hygroscopic. The thin mucus spreads from the foot's centre to its edges, whereas the thick mucus spreads from front to back. Slugs also produce thick mucus that coats the whole body of the animal. So basically one is a lubricant to protect his foot for injury free travel and other protects like a body suit from drying conditions of the environment and protection from predators. Not only are they hard to pick up because of the slime, but they taste bad too!
So, how to do stop these little buggers from eating all our lovely plant stuff? Organic methods include beer in shallow saucers (slugs party like it's 1969) and drown. Also copper banding around the plants is reputed to give off an electrical vibe they don't like (sounds like an urban myth to me), diatomaceous earth (tiny grains of fossilized sea shells), used coffee grounds, ground up egg shells all cut into their soft little bodies so that they dry out and die. Sure you will kill some but I bet you wont make much of a dent in the overall population, but we gotta try!!! You will probably be more successful with iron phosphate baits instead and non harmful to to your curious domestic pets.
Finally, there are Parasitic nematodes (Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita) which are a commercially available biological control method that are effective against a wide range of common slug species. The nematodes are applied in water and actively seek out slugs in the soil and infect them, leading to the death of the slug. This control method is suitable for use in organic growing systems.

Hope you enjoyed this impromptu science lesson, lol. Have a good one!

Research credit goes to: wiki page on slugs