Wildlife Wednesday - slugs

I think I might have done slugs ages ago when they used to visit my dogs' feed bowls and gross me out. Since the dogs died, I haven't seen too many slugs but the other day Mr E took this photo for me (I'm rubbing off on him!).

We had to dig up some plumbing to fix a broken pipe. This is 2" pipe, and Mr E was amazed at how huge the slug was...and he said it had shrunk considerable when he went to get the camera.

The ones that dined on the leftovers each night would be anywhere from 10 - 15 cm and 2 cm wide. The hugest slugs I'd ever seen. (And yeah, I've no idea why I saw these every night and Mr E never did - maybe he came home and never went outside again).

This is an introduced slug called the Leopard Slug. You can find out more from the Australian Museum here. They say they grow to 20 cm and feed on dead animal tissue, cat food and pet faeces (I knew I loathed them for a reason - what a diet!).

Slugs and snails are hermaphrodites, meaning they have both male and female reproductive organs. When they mate, they become entwined and lower themselves from a branch on a thread of mucous to exchange sperm. When it's done, they lift themselves back up by eating the mucous thread (yep, great diet!)

Slugs are never going to make it to my favourite critter list. Snails I have no problem with. And yeah, I can't explain that either! :)


PS State of Origin game 2 is on tonight. Coops is out for Qld, so I'm thinking NSW have a bit of a chance...but in Melbourne, where Qld have just spent 10 days drumming up fans and NSW haven't done much for the fans, I won't be holding my breath for a NSW win. At least with Coops out, Mr E won't think I'm cheering for Qld!