"Slugs and snails and puppydog tails......"

Yes, I know the *real* nursery rhyme goes "snips and snails" but slug goes better with this story!



Slugs are a very common pest here in the Pacific Northwest. These are not just the little things that you find in any damp forest. These slugs are HUGE. They grow to about 4" and these slugs in this story are at LEAST that big! You can not go much of anywhere on spring days without seeing one or more slugs sliding along the ground. Sometimes there is an over-abundance of them. They especially like tomato plants, so you have to aggressively treat your gardens with slug bait, etc...

We didn't have any weather-stripping under our front door in our old house we were in for over 12 years. We would usually keep a long towel along the door to keep out drafts, etc.., but occasionally, someone forgot to put the towel back after closing the door. We had slugs slip under the door from time to time, so I tried to make sure that a towel was tight against the bottom of the door.

Well, late one evening, after putting the oldest 5 of our then 6 kids to bed, Scott and I were sitting in the livingroom, relaxing, while 7 month old Abby played quietly on the floor. I was laying down on the sofa facing away from the front door. Abby had crawled over by the front door and I thought she had found a toy or something, as she was over there for several minutes and I didn't hear a peep. Finally, I got curious as to what she was doing and looked over, only to discover in horror that she was SUCKING ON A HUGE SLUG!!!! It had slid in under the front door and she must have spied it from across the room and thought it looked like an interesting toy. She was sucking on that thing, in and out, in and out, like it was the tastiest treat she had ever had!

Well, I totally FREAKED OUT!!!! When Scott looked, he started laughing hysterically. He thought it was the funniest thing!

I immediately started to worry about whether it was poisonous. Scott said he doubted it, as people eat escargot all the time- which is just slugs with shells on their backs- ICK!!

As I scooped Abby up, the slug flopped to the floor, very obviously dead (I wonder what that slug thought as its life was literally SUCKED away -LOL).

I ran a bath for Abby and attempted to clean the slime off her. If you have ever touched slug-slime, you know that the stuff is STICKY! (I have read somewhere that they use the stuff as medical-grade glue now.) AND it is NOT water-soluble, as I soon discovered. I had to literally SCRAPE the slime off her tongue, inside cheeks and the roof of her mouth. I had to scrub her hands, too. The next morning, I was still finding pieces of slug-slime clinging to her mouth.

Is that a gross story or what? But WAIT- there's more!

As if that isn't bad enough...

Our next baby Kenny did the very same thing!!!! Only this time it was in the kitchen. The slug had come through the back door one cool summer evening. We left both front and back doors open for a breeze. What is the worst part to me is that all the older kids were in the kitchen with him and DID NOT NOTICE the baby sucking on a slug!!? What is up with that?! Not only did Kenny kill his slug, but he actually BIT the end off and the guts were HANGING outside the body!!!! Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! Hope noone was eating as they read this post- lol!