Evening star., 1945-07-21
This and That
By Charles z. Trdceneu.

CHEVY CHASE, Md.
Dear Sir:
I'VE enjoy your articles so very much
and find them not only interesting but
very educational, due to the fact that
these birds, etc., belong here and around
these United States.
Would 1t be asking too much for you
to print the life of that awful looking
thing called the slug? Some one told us
to use lime; this we did, but without
results.
Thanking you, I am,
Yours truly, N. S. D."
- "a
Limax the gray slug, is an interesting,
If at times, disturbing creature.
He is terrestrial pulmonate CASTRO
pod, or snail. in which the shell is rep
resented by an internal horny plate
everything the respiratory cavity.
There are two chief families of Siugs,
the Limacidae and the Arionidae.
The most common are of the genus
LimaX
These queer thines are vegetable
eaters. They often ascend trees in
search of food, then let themselves
down by means of a mucous thread
spun from a gland opening on the
anterior edge of the foot"
Slugs ravage garden and field crops
in Europe, but do little damage, COM
paratively speaking, in the United
States.
The large one is the great gray slug,
sometimes inches long, European
species introduced into and now COM
mon in the New England States.
e1, ioI, &c
common is Lima campestris, a small
species less than an inch long.
-
There are six classes of gastropods, of
which the land snails and the land
slugs form class 6. They include the
common snails, Helix; the great gray
slug, Limax, and the black slug, Arion.
Certainly their names are fascinating,
if not the creatures, whose silvery trails
along our garden walks give some good
people the shivers. Probably few OBJ
servers ever have any real liking for
them, they are so other-worldly.
Limax agrestis is the gray field slug.
Slugs have a partial Information. In
winter they are as active as they are
in the spring and summer, provided the
winter is not severe.
Damage Is less noticeable.
If the winter is severe, they 60 into
Information.
Being nocturnal in habit, they live
Just below the surface of the ground
by day, or under stones, old leaves, etc.
They are seen in daylight only when
1t is wet and dull.
They leave their hiding places in the
evening and attack plants. Eggs are
laid in small patches in the soil during
the summer
Weather conditions then prevailing
regulate the number of slugS which will
appear the following year.
If the weather is wet and dull when
the young slugs hatch, they will grow
well before winter; If a long dry spell
follows their Matching, the majority
will not survive many. days, and SO
there will be scarcity the next spring.
Damp, hot, humid weather, such as
we have been having for many weeks,
is ideal for slugs.
Slugs may be controlled with salt or
copper sulphate. The former is recon-
mended for home control, and is merely
sprinkled on the creature. Two applica-
tions should be made at half-hour in
tervals.
Keep in mind that slugs exude a slime
on first coming in contact with an irri-
tant, but they are unable to repel in
this way for long.
Poisoned bran is effective, but has
the danger of poisons, and loses its ef-
fectiveness in humid weather.
Freshly powdered lime and SCOT,
sprinkled around plants, will act as a
deterrent.