They have a potential 4-year life span. Slugs Slugs are pests in almost all home gardens where there is enough moisture for them to survive. There are more than 30 kinds of these slimy, legless, soft-bodied creatures, all with mouths equipped with horny files with which to rasp leaves. The shell that protects snails is absent on slugs. Instead, they are protected by an abundant coating of special protective skin slime and spend much of their lives hiding under planters, rocks, decaying boards, drainpipes, or anywhere else that is cool, dark, and damp.
Slugs feed during foggy weather, moist nights, and immediately after a rain or garden watering.
They have been found to be most active from 2 hours after sunset to 2 hours before sunrise. Given a choice, slugs prefer to chew tender young shoots and seedlings but will attack many different kinds of plants, including coleuses, cinerarias, dahlias, geraniums, hollyhocks, irises, lilies, marigolds, primroses, snapdragons and violets. They develop slowly and live a year or longer. Keeping down the numbers of slugs and snails requires persistence. Because of their high egg-laying capacity, populations can explode.