Dear Cute Overload:
I am a bit concerned over your lack of….slugs. Yes, slugs. While we don’t have quite the “Squee Factor” of say, “Kodie,” no doubt you will agree we have a certain slimy Je Ne Sais Quoi, no?
Sincerely,
Sammy McSluggersons
Sammy McSluggersons photo from Diana C. “I am sending you a pic of a tiger slug, amazing little things crawling around in Ireland.”
Intriguing! But you’d think it would be called a leopard slug.
That was my thought!
Moi, aussi.
It is actually, you are right!
it is. i’ve kept a few as pets. i lubbers them! now i just stick to snails and leave the slugs outside (well fed mind you).
Not intrigued. Sorry, not a fan of slugs, tiger or leopard. Give me kiiehs.
Yeah, I think there’s a reason why we haven’t seen any slugs before. They’re gross.
Also they eat my marigolds.
Actually, that was me….sorry, they went perfectly with my garden salad.
Hm, interesting, never seen this type before!
aaahhh! The shoes! While Mr. McSluggerson is interesting, it is the shoes that are the cute overload for me!
Inquiring mind, does Sammy have a hole in his side? Some type of sensory receptor?
Slugs make my Hostas holey which makes me slightly hostile, but not enough to hurt them.
Noticed the “hole” also–a bit alarming if it IS a hole! Slug is innn.ter.es.ting, but while snails are cute, I just can’t make it there for slugs.
That’s the slug’s nostril.
That “hole” leads to the lungs and Sammy breathes through it. He can also absorb oxygen through his wet skin.
he also poops from it.
EEEEEWWWWWW!!!!!
Whenever it rains, my porch gets covered in snails (which I’ve determined are just non-homeless slugs), and I think they’re cute! I’d be scared of stepping on these guys though, they seem to camoflage too well, and ewww to step on one would be disgusting!
I don’t mind slugs but I wouldn’t want one on my face as Clancy does, http://cuteoverload.com/2013/01/24/the-adventures-of-clancy-down-under-cont/
but otherwise they are OK. I also refuse to eat their cousins the snails.
One is interesting (too bad we don’t have a face pic). Two might be ok. But, sorry slugger, more than that and I think my toes would start to curl.
However, you probably have a lovely personality.
He is actually kinda cute.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a slug (or a snail, for that matter) in Tucson – even when it’s been raining.
If furry is cute, and naked is cute, why not slimy?
‘Cuz it’s slimy.
Think of it as SHINY.
Oooh, shiny.
snails = cute
slugs = mobile snot goobers
sorry, Sammy McSluggersons, your cousin Eddie Van Snailen wins this round.
I second this. Snailios are cute. Slugs… no. Just no.
i believe the hole is where they breathe, can;t recall for sure. and hurray for some ‘differently cute’ (to be PC) animals 8D
hahaha this qt, limax maximus has holes to breathe… its top speed of 6 in/min!!! and it’s a top hunter, and you guys are right, it is a leopard slug!
I like slugs and have had them and snails for pets. They have very cute faces and their tentacles are very cute. They are calm and harmless (ok, not to those plants you value but still. Thank you CO for including them in your family of animuhls. And thank you Diana C. for seeing the cuteness in them and have the sweetness to send photo in among all those furry opponents.
I am quite conflicted about slugs. I think they are adorable and sweet, but when they eat my vegetable plants I get pi**ed. I carefully pick them off using a leaf, and put them on the lawn. I guess all I accomplish is stalling their return to feast on my vegetables. I know people who kill them, but no way could I do that. Sigh…..
p.s. If I accidentally get their slime on my hand, then I go stark raving mad. That stuff does not wash off.
I am with you sm. I do NOT want them around anything i am growing, but I cannot kill them. I will, however, deposit them in the neighbor’s yard.
ooh, you are wicked
I think it’s nifty that slugs make different types of slime for different purposes (see the Physiology section in this entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slug).
And I find banana slugs highly entertaining, perhaps its because they can be large enough that you really get a sense of their ‘faces’ if you pic one up…
You haven’t met the neighbor –
it’s only just.
thank you Phred’s mom. Some neighbors are wonderful. and some are not. Neighbors who think their children having all night bonfire parties in the backyard is OK, regardless of the sound volume…. well…
Latest issue of The Simple Things tells me that snails & slugs actually have a homing instinct like no one’s business. Tossing them in the neighbor’s garden might just be giving them a vacation.
Eye stalks are the cute. Slime trails though, not so much.
Oh, I don’t know… The trails the snails in my yard leave are lines of polka dots all in a row, size depending on the particular snail, meandering across the (concrete) path. Kinda a “who knew?” moment…
Need pictures!
I would never intentionally hurt one but I wouldn’t want them as pets either. But they are interesting to look at (from afar).
That’s a good camera shot of the slug! Amazing!
the slug is cute, but oh those shoes
I find myself peering at the screen wishing they weren’t blurry.
No!
I agree. But I would go further. NONONONONONNOTCUTE!!1! I had one in my hair once when I was younger and EWWWWWEEEKGROOOSSSSS it scarred me for life.
slugs are very cute. glad to finally see some on here.
No “blorp” tag?
OK, here’s the deal. I think snails are cute. I think slugs are yicky. But that slug IS kinda interestingly patterned.
Also, as a side note if anyone was interested, I accidentally got a slug in my mouth once. Strangely, it didn’t really taste like anything, but the texture was not at all nice.
Um, how did that happen? And I don’t doubt that the texture was… unappealing.
it was in my garden-grown salad.
I had a nightmare about slugs in my mouth once *shakes and rocks back & forth*
Please tell me it wasn’t one the size of this…
no, it was pretty small.
YUCK.
I had the misfortune of living in two apartments in a row that slugs managed to get into. I moved into the second one thinking ahhh, no more slugs then about a month later looked at the wall and went WHAT IS THAT NO IT CAN”T BE IT JUST CANNOT BE I WANT MY MOMMY! This wasn’t in the Northwest or even a damp climate.
Let me just opine that getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and stepping on one will disabuse anyone of thinking slugs are cute and not to be killed.
The shoes, on the other hand…I see what y’all mean.
Waking up in the early morning and walking outside in my bare feet is one of my fondest memories of childhood in California. Stepping on a snail is the one I can’t seem to get rid of. Next time, I’ll protect myself with kittens.
Co-incidence? I theenk not. Yesterday I was drawing mash-ups of my favourite and least favourite animals. I drew the cat-slug and the hammer-head-puppy. And now there’s a slug on CO?! They are out to get me….
Too late.
I believe that all things in this world are beautiful! True they are slimy, but that’s a good thing, they need to be so they can be protected from the environment, is like having shoes if you will… and as most of it’s body is made of water, it needs to keep moist, it also helps them not to sleep trough different slippery surfaces! The slime is useful also to find a mate, so in slug world, slime is sexy! =)
About the fact that they are considered pests, well, they do have to eat as well, and if it weren’t for humans damaging the environment and killing most of it’s predators, it wouldn’t have become a problem. People use pesticides and cause the extinction of lots of frogs, snakes, rats and birds which are natural predators of the slug.
In the end I don’t mind if they take what they need from my garden, It’s a lovely big planet, there should be enough for all of us to share!
The Night of the Slugs
I used to get slugs in my little walled-in, mostly-paved-over courtyard in South Philadelphia. Suffice to say, I do not like them. We’ll just skip over the part about what I did to them–the slug-lovers would, um, ‘disapprove,’ to put it mildly. Of course, the number of slugs I’d see in any given time period varied, but I’d say if I saw more than, say, five in an evening I’d probably consider that quite a lot.
THEN: There was this one night . . . oh, God, it gives me the creeps just to think about it . . . when I found EIGHTY-FOUR slugs in my 13′ x 13′ courtyard. Yes, I actually counted. Many were tiny, most were average-sized, and one was HUUUUUUGE!!! Possibly the matriarch of the entire clan? I don’t know. If this all sounds nightmarish, even hallucinatory, then you are on the right track of understanding just what it was like.
But the thing is, I’ve never understood how/why this happened. Is this at all some kind of normal event in the life cycle of slugs? Is it like the swallows returning to Capistrano? (The slugs return to Clymer Street?) Some kind of cosmic/karmic revenge for what I’d been doing to their colleagues? (Though it wouldn’t be much of a revenge, since I proceeded to do exactly that to all 84 of them, as well.) I can’t say I’ve actually looked for an answer–I wouldn’t know where to begin–I guess I thought some day I’d stumble across it, but it’s been over 12 years, and that hasn’t happened yet.
Be nice to the slugs. They throw fabulous parties!
If it weren’t for slugs (and snails), we’d all be up to our eyeballs in mulch. They break down decaying leaf matter, and not just my hostas. I avoid stepping on them but I couldn’t kill one, even with beer (waste of beer!).
Ew. Not cute!