Slugs don't burrow like rabbits they slither like worms. Only 5% of the slug population is above ground at any one time. The other 95% is underground digesting your seedlings, laying eggs, and feeding on roots and seed sprouts. I have dug up plants and found slugs right underneath the roots.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
Worms breathe through their skin; they can survive underwater; they can survive underground.
Slugs have a big hole in the side of their head that they suck air in through, which is why they drown. If you block said hole with soil, the slug will suffocate!
Thank you, scroggin. It's not that I think they don't survive (at all) underground, I just think the term 'living underground' that your read almost everywhere is rather sensationalist. Claiming that 90% of slugs are living underground evokes an image of a vast underground network of slugs digging out cluedo-esque tunnels to move yet more slugs quickly between the rooms you keep your most prized plants in. If one tunnel collapses they just build a new one.
We portray them as some sort of terminator style super-baddy that just keeps coming and will never give up but I think the reality is a bit more like find a hole and go in it. I mean, imagine the effort of trying to dig a tunnel with a slimy tail without being able to breath that well, without being able to see and with no idea where you're actually trying to go.
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Slugs don't burrow like rabbits they slither like worms. Only 5% of the slug population is above ground at any one time. The other 95% is underground digesting your seedlings, laying eggs, and feeding on roots and seed sprouts. I have dug up plants and found slugs right underneath the roots.
Worms breathe through their skin; they can survive underwater; they can survive underground.
Slugs have a big hole in the side of their head that they suck air in through, which is why they drown. If you block said hole with soil, the slug will suffocate!
Thank you, scroggin. It's not that I think they don't survive (at all) underground, I just think the term 'living underground' that your read almost everywhere is rather sensationalist. Claiming that 90% of slugs are living underground evokes an image of a vast underground network of slugs digging out cluedo-esque tunnels to move yet more slugs quickly between the rooms you keep your most prized plants in. If one tunnel collapses they just build a new one.
We portray them as some sort of terminator style super-baddy that just keeps coming and will never give up but I think the reality is a bit more like find a hole and go in it. I mean, imagine the effort of trying to dig a tunnel with a slimy tail without being able to breath that well, without being able to see and with no idea where you're actually trying to go.
Last edited: 06 September 2017 12:35:08