I hear beer keeps them moist.

Well, it ends their suffering anyway.

I was cutting the weeds off my vegetable beds today in hopes of the ground drying out enough to plant tomorrow, and I sliced quite a few of them, believe me they were very moist down there under all the weeds. But their sliced and diced remains turned a lovely baked shade of brown in the sun.:-) Does anyone know if the local flat-wound snails are harmful, as in vegetation eaters, or not? There was supposed to be a carnivorous snail in California that would feed on other snails.

I found one baby banana slug and transported him/her to the woods.

Banana slugs are good. Or so I hear. I haven't actually tried one.

ROFLOL, Doris. Actually they will numb your tongue, I hear. Haven't tried one either, but one did numb my fingers a little when I carried it to the woods in my hand, what has I thinking?

From my days working at Northwest Trek: Banana slugs=good, all other slugs=bad. Slug slime will numb you, great for stinging nettle burns. Just some fun trivia.

*gasp* a cannibalistic slug!? where?! where?!

cannibalistic snail species I found were: great gray garden slug (Limax maximus), tawny garden slug (L. flavus), milky slug (Deroceras reticulatum), greenhouse slug (Milax gagates), gray garden slug (Agriolimax reticulatis)

There is also a study in Britain on nematodes that will control slugs at this website:

http://www.slugcontrol.rothamsted.ac.uk/task2yr1.html

Oh and here is a "young naturalist" award winning essay on slugs too :) It is VERY well written by a 17 year old. not at all dry or boring :)

http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/youngnaturalistawards/1998/slimy.html

Banana slugs are good, they prefer dead leaves :) but as for the rest of them? *gathering the villagers(kids) armed with torches(flashlights), knives, and salt shakers and heading out to the garden* MWAHAHAHA!

Hmmm...think I'll read that essay...just to see if it was writted without a lot of "um, like.....ya know" verbiage.
LOL...yeah....um, like...ya know....I'm bad! grin

Patrick

I squish the brown and black slugs I see; but I worry that the greyish little ones might be baby banana slugs, so I leave those alone. Adult banana slugs have that distinctive greeny yallery color, do the babies also?

Baby gray slugs grow into BIG BAD slugs. They're especially fond of hostas -- and coffee. (Snicker.)

John,
Would that be Coffea Arabica, Coffea Robusta, or Coffea Liberica?
PNWjudy

I'm thinking Coffea Overconsumptious Majoricus.

lol

Patrick

Actually, I've heard they prefer a fine micro brew.

I do too. :) I just found this forum, didn't know it was here. My online gardening friends all live back east so this is a treat.

I don't remember, do Banana slugs have spots?

I found a baby Banana slug, maybe 3/4" long, and it already had the coloration of an adult, greenish yellow with brown streaks on the sides. You could google an image if you want to see what they look like. The streaks on the sides are kind of like flame bursts.

Interesting, Ohaganem, about the slug slime and stinging nettle, as I get stung every now and then. I don't know if I have the stomach to try slug slime on it, though.

What exactly is beneficial about a banana slug? (Not being sarcastic, just ignorant I suppose). I skewer all slugs that I find on my slug hunting stick.

Slugs and snails are natural enemies. Slugs will eat snails. I used to raise escargot/snails for an income when my children were babies and toddlers. Yes, banana slugs will numb your mouth, and has been used as a natural anaesthetic by indigenous peoples for a long time. If you were able to look at the underside of a slug, you would see that they exude the slime from the front of their bodies and then glide on the slime. They have huge voracious mouths and are nothing more than eating machines. Don't use salt on them, use ammonia mixed with water in a spray bottle. Much better for the earth than salt.
Trish

Nightnurse, I believe banana slugs are known for only eating decomposing plants, mostly forest plants. Far and away, I find the most and biggest banana slugs in the woods; some real champs! BUT, last night I swear I found a juvenile banana slug, typical light olive color , atop my dicentra adjacent to the woods. What the heck? I instituted an immediate relocation program with a savage right slider. Jamie Moyer's career is not jeopardized, by me anyway. Whether the slug was jeopardized I do not know.

Thanks for the info...but just to be on the safe side I think I will give Jamie Moyer a run for his money too just in case I see one. Hey...we could use the pitching help. I keep hoping my Louisiana boy will come through with a big game one day.

Like Jamie jr. above, I have developed quite a pitching arm from all of the slugs I have launched into the wetlands which are adjacent to our property here in slug heaven (Olympia Washington). I used to pitch the snails as well but my animal-loving daughters took one look at the cute crawly thing in my hand and immediately insisted we adopt all we could find. We now have three terrariums in our house: one each for the two girls and one as a snail hospital for the ones that had broken shells. The good news about all of this is that my yard is becoming increasingly slug and snail-free thanks to the encouragement of my daughters who want new pals each day... but that slug slime is DISGUSTING! I have to use soap and water PLUS a scrub brush to remove it from my hands which have become quite numb. Seems to me there ought to be a use for something that is extra tough and numbing...???hmmm...

Are there any banana slugs in the PDX area ? I've never seen anything but grays and browns. I lavish Milwaukee's Best on them, employing a homemade yoghurt container trap I learned to make via the Washington County Extension page. Works way better than any pellets I've ever tried.

Of course, nature abhors a vacuum. Where the slugs fall back, the catepillars take over. Bah.

They extremely attracted to melon rinds also; the sweeter; the better. When I lived over in Covington, I lived on the end of the street with woods on the other side. Laid boards along the fenceline then every few day turned then over while the two ducks feasted. They looked upon slug eggs as caviar. Now it's still war as I have many more tender plants that they really like; and as the old adage goes; all's fair in love and war.

Spotted Leopard Slugs: http://oregonstate.edu/dept/nurspest/Limaxmaximus.htm

They're not native- I've seen them around my shade garden, but I credit the Northern Red-legged frogs for my lack of slug problems.

I drink a lot of loose leaf tea and put the used tea leaves around my plants. Good for the soil and the slugs don't like the caffeine.
At my current apt. there are spruce trees in the backyard so I tried chopping up the branches and putting those around the plants too. Even though it helps keep the soil moist which is good for slugs, they don't seem to like the sharp texture (and possibly scent) of the spruce.

Just off the top of my head:

They're pollinators: Native plants such as wild ginger depend on banana slugs for pollination.

They're scavengers: They eat decaying plant and animal materials, returning the nutrients they contain to the ecosystem.

They disseminators: They help spread plant seeds and mushroom spores around the forest floor.

There are probably many other things they're useful for, aside from frightening people, but that's all I can remember at the moment.

If you're really psyched about them, try:

Banana Slug: A Close Look at a Giant Forest Slug of Western North America
Alice Bryant Harper