{"id":1747,"date":"2024-07-24T18:15:21","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T22:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fromthecreek.com\/?p=1747"},"modified":"2024-07-24T18:38:38","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T22:38:38","slug":"slugs-sticky-slimy-and-underloved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromthecreek.com\/?p=1747","title":{"rendered":"Slugs: Sticky, slimy, and underloved"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I was never a slug fan, and I know I am not alone. My nephew and I once bounced ideas for a book called 101 Uses for a Slug,<\/em> and most of them involved the slug\u2019s demise. They munch garden plants and leave sticky slime trails on the window screens. People who are lazy are called slugs. What is there to love? Turns out, there is more than you might think. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Limax maximus,<\/em> Leopard slugs, introduced<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Terrestrial gastropods without shells are commonly called slugs, and that is because these gentle, slow-moving creatures reminded someone of slow, lazy people. Plodding humans were not called slugs after these shell-less mollusks, it was the other way around. It wasn\u2019t until the 1700s that the word slug was used for this creature. I am not sure what they were commonly called before that, but it probably wasn’t a terrestrial gastropod without a shell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had my slug epiphany one morning when I awoke in my summer bedroom, a screened sleeping box about 100 feet from the house. A four-inch leopard slug, Limax maximus, <\/em>was gliding up the outside of the screen. Perhaps I had been having warm, sweet dreams, or was just so snuggled and content in my comforter that nothing could cause dismay, but instead of getting up to flick it off, I watched bemused as the pale foot contracted and stretched and the slug climbed higher. I finally tossed off the blankets and set it on the palm of my hand for a closer look. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could see it breathing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I held my breath and watched. A small oblong opening was very slowly opening and closing. It was the pneumostome, which is what a slug uses to breathe.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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