Found this big boy on my back porch. The banana slug is native to the Pacific Northwest region of the USA, it is one of the largest slugs in the world growing up to ten inches long… my slug isn’t that big though
Found this big boy on my back porch. The banana slug is native to the Pacific Northwest region of the USA, it is one of the largest slugs in the world growing up to ten inches long… my slug isn’t that big though
I adore those critters. Lived for a while in the Bay Area and had friends in the hills above Santa Cruz, so knew full well about them.
Fast forward some 25 years and my dad decides after the end of the third divorce to leave New England move to the California mid-coast… and he tells me about these humongous yellow and black slugs… I told him they feel really cool and to pick one up.
He calls me a week later to grumble that he did… but oh, by the way, did I forget to mention that their slime was like a natural form of contact cement that took days for him to get off his hands?
Why no dad… I did not forget.
I love you too.
Oop! I’ve never touched one on purpose and I’ve definitely never picked one up! I enjoy seeing them around though, I’m more of a slug admirer than a slug enjoyer
Oh man you have gotta try licking one. True PNW right of passage - the slime is a shockingly effective anesthetic.
I don’t think that’s safe lol didn’t a kid die from eating a slug? Not sure if it applies to this species but I wouldn’t chance it.
Yeah, generally the worry is about rat lungworm.
eating =/= licking - but fwiw you’ve eaten plenty of slug slime in your life. While there are slug-borne parasites, the ones which are a threat to humans cannot live in the mucous itself (at least with banana slugs…)
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