slugs

[bexste]

Can anybody explain to me what purpose slugs serve to nature? For example worms have a purpose they let soil breathe, and spiders of course keep flies down etc.... I find them totally repulsive and all I can see they do is eat all my plants each year.

[andyjevs]

They are a valuable part of the food chain for frogs and thrushes etc and they can munch away at rotten plant material too.
Still yuk tho !!!

[lankeela]

Have a heart! Slugs are just homeless snails!

[gen2]

Who says every organism has to have a purpose? The only 'purpose' of an organism is to survive long enough to reproduce. Those that don't meet this criteria die out and become extinct.

As far as worms are concerned, they don't exist to aerate the soil, that is simply a by-product of their lifestyle, just as polluting the environment is a by-product of the human lifestyle. Only difference is - we have the option to change our lifestyle - other organisms don't.

[Cetti]

It would be nice to say that slugs are a necessary part of the environment because.....but I've failed miserably, they're not. Hedgehogs eat them and as andy says so do Thrushes and Frogs but they would still be fine without these revolting beings.

A bit of useless trivia - The 23 species living in the UK are basically snails without shells (see lankeela, you were right!) A few, such as the testacella, have tiny shells. The remaining slugs belong to two groups - the roundbacks and the keeled slugs.

Although a hermaphrodite the slug rarely fertilizes itself. Mating is preceded by a long courtship ritual, particularly elaborate in the Great Grey Slug. They circle round licking each other for up to two and a half hours......I think that's as far as I can go, the rest is a bit too steamy for a Friday....

[vehelpfulguy]

You could ask what purpose humans serve to nature.

If we went away the rest of the living things on the planet would have a much better chance of survival (as would the whole planet).

As it is we over populate, destroy rain forests, build atomic bombs, concrete over whole areas of the earth, pollute the atmosphere, have huge wars that kill each other, and cause other species to go extinct.

(I bet humans have caused more animals to go extinct than any creature on earth).

No, on the whole it would be better for the earth if humans died out and slugs survived.

[logman]

Yes bexste, i agree they are not the most endearing of natures creatures but i do believe they are a vital link in the food chain. I also think the more you learn and understand about them, the more can be appreciated about them.

[Elfin]

I like slugs and snails. Hedgehogs, beetles, birds, frogs and toads like to eat them.

Anything that belongs to the family Gastropoda (loosely translating to "stomach foot") is pretty interesting I think.

A foot that munches! How cool is that!

And they have tentacles with eyes on the end...fab!

[Drusilla]

I have always had a soft spot for slugs ever since childhood. Some boys' on my street poured salt over one and the poor thing squirmed in agony. I thought boys cruel and pointless for many years after that.
I think humans wrongly assume our lives are more important than others, but if humans became extinct, I believe there would be a greater diversity of life on this planet and less destruction and from the point of view of this planet, itself a living organism, I would suggest that makes us the pointless creature in it's eyes. (If it has any)
Sorry if that sounds a bit preachy. I'll get off my soapbox now and slither away, all embarrassed.

[smudge]

Reminds me of last week - Our little Granddaughter aged 2.5 said "Nanny, I don't like babies, I only like worms & slugs". Maybe she's trying to tell us something!

[ilovetaz]

they um they erm... They uhhhhh Well I think God was just having fun!