The eggs take three to eight weeks to hatch, by which time the deadbeat parents are long gone. Baby slugs are totally at the mercy of birds, shrews, and other big, bad things. Whippersnapper sluggers are clear when hatched, and the characteristic bright yellow color develops within the first few days. Banana slugs seldom reach old age, but natural lifespan is estimated at three to six years, based on those of other land slugs. Must be the sex.
Banana slugs play an important role in keeping forests healthy.
As scavengers, they eat living and decaying plants, roots, fruit, seeds, bulbs, lichen, algae, fungi, animal droppings, small carcasses, poison oak, mushrooms, and other debris on the forest floor. They're symbiotic with the California redwood, in that they eat plants that compete with redwood seedlings. When the trees grow, they provide necessary shade for the slugs, so both win. While banana slugs will eat garden plants if given no choice, they prefer the forest floor menu and shouldn't be confused with common garden slugs. For one thing, their bright-yellow color immediately distinguishes them from their destructive, boring gray cousins.