Everyone who has ever had their own plot has encountered a slug. Its appearance is quite unpleasant, and many people treat this mollusk with contempt. They may have a reduced shell or without it and are terrestrial gastropods. They appear after rain and give gardeners cause for concern. Their size can be from 2 to 20 centimeters, and sometimes 30, like roadside slugs.

General information about the mollusk

The mollusk has an elongated, elongated body that can change its shape due to muscle contractions. Its body consists of three sections: head, legs and visceral mass. The legs and torso are separated by a circular groove. The head has tentacles on which the sensory organs are located. Behind the head there is a mantle with a pulmonary opening leading to the mantle cavity, which, in fact, performs the function of the lung.

They are always covered with mucus. This is a protective reaction against drying out. Coloring can be varied. They are found in gray, brown, yellow and even black. May be spotted. Some types of slugs are bred in aquariums and are considered pets.

Varieties of slugs

Slugs prefer damp places. If the soil is dry, they die or become buried in the ground. Very often they can be found in the forest or in the garden. An excellent place for them is thickets of bushes. They can also live in the far corners of parks, where there is a body of water nearby. They feed on leaves, mushrooms, berries and flowers. Some species feed on worms. They cannot live in hot places. These mollusks are not found in deserts.

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There are many types of slugs. Many of them are pests. The most common are:

In nature, there are several hundred species of this mollusk.

Characteristics of representatives

Large roadside is the most common species in the garden. It is large in size. Sometimes it is called leopard print. Its color is gray-spotted.

The blue slug is often called the Carpathian slug. This is due to the fact that it is found only in the region of these mountains. It is large in size and brightly colored. Prefers coniferous and deciduous forests of Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Its diet includes russula, which is what gives the giant blue slug its amazing color. The accumulation of this species will be a tip to the mushroom picker. This means that there is a mushroom clearing nearby somewhere.

The naked slug is the most famous species in Russia. This annoying pest not only lives in the garden, but also loves greenhouses and greenhouses. Leaves large holes on fruits and leaves.

The black type of mollusk is the largest. Some individuals are up to 30 centimeters long. Mushrooms are what slugs of this species eat. He also loves root vegetables.

Another large representative is the banana slug. It is not found in banana plantations and will not look like a banana, but is a bright yellow color. It feeds on lichen, mushrooms and rotten leaves.

How to fight slugs in the garden using folk remedies

Small species include the field slug. Its dimensions do not exceed 5−6 centimeters. It lives in valleys and on the edges of forests. Young shoots and wild berries make up its diet. Comes in all shades of brown.

In moss thickets you can find whole groups of reticulated slugs. This species loves loose soil and rotten leaves. He is one of the smallest representatives. Its dimensions do not exceed 3 centimeters. Very often has a spotted color.

Enemies of shellfish

They have quite a lot of enemies. The sun is their main enemy, as they cannot tolerate high temperatures and die. They are loved by predators, such as wild boars. Some vertebrates feed on them. They are food for shrews, hedgehogs and moles. Rodents won't refuse them either.

Snakes, frogs and lizards often feast on slugs. There are a lot of their enemies among birds. Rooks, starlings, storks, gulls, jackdaws and many other birds prefer to feed on them. Among domestic animals, ducks and chickens should be noted, which do not refuse slugs.

Insects are also a threat to shellfish. They are part of the regular diet for ground beetles. Grasshoppers also feed on them. There are many who eat slugs in nature.

Diet and harm to the garden

Most varieties of this mollusk cause enormous harm not only to gardeners and gardeners, but also to the entire agriculture industry in general. They feed on more than 150 types of vegetables and fruits; they love not only root vegetables, but also foliage and shoots of plants. They give preference to potatoes, beans, cucumbers, strawberries, tomatoes and many other vegetables, fruits and berries. But they avoid garlic, onions, mustard and basil.

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Very often, entire grape and citrus plantations are under threat of destruction from this pest. Rye and winter wheat are often affected by slugs. They feed not only on grains, but also on seedlings. They avoid buckwheat, flax and spring wheat.

This is a real disaster for gardeners, as they spread incredibly quickly in the garden. And all because:

• lay dozens of eggs;
• develop rapidly to reproduce;
• are hermaphrodites and do not need a partner.

Slugs are a source of viral, bacterial and fungal diseases. For this reason, the entire crop often perishes. Crawling from one place to another, they spread the infection everywhere. They spread diseases such as:

• cabbage spot;
• potato late blight;
• downy mildew of beans.

There can be many reasons for the mass spread of a pest:

• not very cold winter;
• rainy summer;
• wet but warm autumn;
• early spring.

It's hard to fight them. It is better to take preventative measures. If slugs appear, you must get rid of them immediately, otherwise the harvest cannot be saved.

Part one. Gastropods attack!

Spanish snail, Lusitanian slug, red slug...

This is a relatively new inhabitant of central Russia, appearing in summer cottages near Moscow only in the last few years. A large, rapidly reproducing, omnivorous slug with colors ranging from orange-red to dark brown is perceived by many older summer residents as a kind of mutant of the usual slugs, and conversations are usually conducted about the deterioration of the environment and the horrors of the chemical industry, and yet this gastropod is a typical example of the importation of agricultural products. pest with vegetables and fruits. A foreign invader, so to speak.

Red roadside slug (Arion rufus)
Or perhaps the Lusitanian slug (Arion lusitanicus)

The popular names of this slug - Spanish snail, Lusitanian slug, red slug and other variations on the theme of color and place - apparently go back to the names two species of lung snails from the genus Arion: Arion rufus and Arion lusitanicus. In Russian these are, respectively, the red roadside slug and the Lusitanian slug. The species are similar to each other; it is hardly possible to determine which one you came across among your favorite roses or in a gently cultivated greenhouse. We can definitely exclude the black variation of the slug - Arion ater is an exclusively nocturnal species that is not yet found here, and in Northern Europe it is even listed in the Red Book (although not as an endangered species).
In Europe there is also a large roadside slug - but this spotted creature, growing up to 20 cm in average length, does not seem to live here yet either. (Although they write on the Internet that large slugs have taken root well in both Americas...)

Initially, red slugs lived in the south of Portugal and Spain (in the territory of the ancient Roman province of Lusitania, from which one of the species received its name). Apparently, the main food for these gastropods at first was rotting forest litter, but the development of agriculture provided red slugs with much more nourishing and larger “pastures”. Climate warming, as well as an increase in agricultural land, trade relations, globalization and other achievements of human civilization have contributed to the fact that red slugs, traveling throughout Europe, gradually acquired new habitats - preferring to capture vegetable fields, orchards, as well as grain plantings and various there are vineyards.

Until the first quarter or third of the 20th century, red slugs were considered a scourge only of their original habitats, but Over the twentieth century, slugs have conquered almost all of Europe, after which they moved east, that is, towards us. It should also be noted that until the 1990s, supplies of agricultural products from Europe to Russia were simply not carried out; European vegetables and fruits came to us only a couple of decades ago. Along with them, obviously, came red slugs, which by that time in Europe had already been recognized as catastrophic pests.

Welcome, foreign invaders...

What provoked the rapid growth in the number of slugs and their rapid spread over such a large area? A couple of online publications evasively talk about the absence of natural enemies in slugs, which leads to an uncontrolled increase in their numbers. But there is obvious deceit in this kind of approach - slugs, which have abandoned their protective shell, are in fact simple and accessible food for a huge number of carnivores. First of all, slugs are prey for hedgehogs, moles and shrews. A hungry rat will not disdain a slug. Many amphibians will also readily snack on slugs: frogs, toads, salamanders. Slugs are part of the diet of lizards and snakes. And there are also birds: large passerines, most ravens, many waterfowl are ready to snack on gastropods.

Red roadside slug on the edge of the forest
(near the reclamation ditch)

Even if all these enemies were not ready to attack an adult red slug, which is estimated to reach a maximum length of 15 cm, they should destroy the vast majority of the small gastropods. But that doesn't happen. For a very obvious reason - most of the listed enemies of slugs are enemies of agriculture, only larger and more visible, and not only European, but also our Russian farmers have been successfully fighting them for a long time. There are no moles - there are slugs. There are no frogs - there are slugs. There are no birds - there are slugs. Why be surprised?

Droughts in southern Europe could be a limiting factor in the spread of slugs - slugs do not know how to live in a dry climate and quickly die in the absence of moisture. Land reclamation and the transfer of agriculture to technologies using irrigation contributed to the reproduction and comfortable life of slugs. You can, of course, write abstruse articles about the influence of a comet named after an unknown astronomer on the biosphere of the planet, but in fact, we ourselves have paved convenient paths for slugs to travel and organized excellent feeding grounds for them.

In our Russian conditions, winter frost can affect the numbers of both Lusitanian and red slugs. Adults and small slugs overwinter in the soil, burrowing into it and falling into suspended animation. Our winters cannot be compared with Spanish ones; the soil in the forest can freeze several tens of centimeters deep. The size of the European alien is quite large; keeping all vital systems intact is much more difficult for him than for our ordinary slugs.

However the main thing for survival is for the slug eggs to survive the winter, and this, as you know, is a completely different matter. Eggs can be stored inside the root plexuses of trees, in earthen burrows, and simply in the depths of a pile of leaves. The egg itself is a much more resilient form of life, and one slug can lay up to hundreds of eggs in one clutch. (I don’t know who thought this and how, but the figure wanders from article to article.) How often a slug can lay eggs is unknown; I have not found reliable information. Our gray slugs seem to do this once a year - in the fall, with a lifespan of 1 to 3 years. But again, these are all individual empirical data.

And we must not forget that any summer cottage will provide slugs with enough secluded places where they can comfortably and calmly wait out the coldest winter. Perhaps this is why flower growers write hysterically about slugs in their blogs, and not ministers broadcast pathetically and tragically from the screens of zombie-boxes.

We'll sweep it up, we'll take it out... We'll live on a bare planet.

Articles by eminent agronomists and honored farmers would further discuss how and what is the best way to lime a slug. But I will not discuss the issues of mass killing of slugs. I myself am too lazy for energetic military measures, and I consider fussing for every inch of land free from pests on a scale of six to fifteen to thirty acres to be pointless. Besides, I don’t feel the right to deprive other creatures of life just because I wanted to admire some vegetation right here and now, and they prevented it. As long as we are not talking about cultivating the land for our daily bread, there is no point in fighting what nature itself has come up with. As for what chemists and biologists came up with, let them figure it out themselves.

Estimate the size of the stretched slug
And this is far from the largest specimen

Did the slugs prevent me from admiring the flower? Well, so be it.
I will admire the amazing creatures that managed to take over Europe.
It turns out they are very, very interesting creatures.

And finally. How long have you seen a hedgehog on your summer cottage? Ah, a long time ago. And no hedgehog will get into your area, because you have a reliable fence, under which even a mouse will not slip. How long has it been since you removed all the moles? Ah, already a decade. And you don’t want to see any more such misfortune in your life. What do you do with a toad you accidentally see? Oh, you're doing the same thing. Dirty and disgusting... What if it's a snake? Oh, this is terrible horror...

Continue, dear summer residents, to clean out your plots in accordance with your pathetic illusions, as if you decide who lives here. The red slugs are on their way. Get ready to meet uninvited guests. And get ready to give them everything - vegetables from the garden, fruits from the garden, and even flowers from your favorite flower bed. Slugs love everything. They'll eat it all.
Do you think some clever poison will help you? Imagine how much of this poison you and your children will eat and inhale. And think for a second that someone will come after the slugs. After all, someone will come. Necessarily. Are you ready for this meeting?

Photo and text: Lazy Summer Resident, 2014

In the photo: ARION (Arion rufus) is very indiscriminate in food, they devour everything - from plant tubers to animal corpses and feces. There is evidence of attacks by these slugs on chicks and juvenile rodents.

In the photo: FIELD MUG (Deroceras agreste) The original habitats of this slug are wet meadows and the edges of damp forests. But, apparently, the gluttony inherent in these mollusks, just as primordially, was completely satisfied in the fields, vegetable gardens, and orchards cultivated by humans.

In the photo: THE NET SLUGE (Deroceras reticulatum) whose original habitats are more diverse than those of the field slug, although the lifestyle and behavior are very similar to a related species. The reticulated slug has numerous small white and black spots scattered across a brown background.

These crowns of creation hide during the day in moss, fallen leaves, among loose lumps of soil or under bark bushes and stones. They do not take refuge for the day alone, but prefer to gather in large groups. It is believed that such shelters help the mollusks reduce dehydration, since a crowd of slugs in the shelter creates increased humidity. Hiding from the sun, they curl up into a ball: reducing the body surface also reduces moisture loss.

The slug also curls up into a ball when danger threatens.

Slugs need moisture. They clearly prefer places with a mild, humid climate. Perhaps foggy England should be considered a paradise for European slugs. There are areas in it where a million slugs live per hectare! Thank God, this doesn’t happen here.

Take a closer look at the slug (on damp days they sometimes go out to feed during daylight hours). An elongated fusiform body without a shell. In front, as expected, is the head. It has two pairs of tentacles, the lower ones are short, the upper ones are longer. If you touch the tentacles, they will retract into the head. Remember the childhood tease: “Snail, snail, stick out your horns, I’ll give you a piece of pie”? There is little demand from children - how do they know that these are not horns, but hollow skin protrusions. Eyes protrude from the ends of the upper tentacles, as if proving the correctness of the name of the detachment. The eye tentacles also serve as olfactory organs; the lower ones are for touch.

Slugs have lips - leathery folds around the mouth, a tongue, a jaw (one) and teeth. But the teeth do not sit in the jaw, but on the tongue. Yes, yes, the tongue is literally studded with many horny teeth, bent back, just like a kitchen grater. Zoologists call their language “grater”.

An oval shield is visible a little behind the head - like a patch not placed very carefully. This is the so-called mantle. The front part of the patch lies freely on the body of the mollusk, the back part is attached to the back and covers the lung (otherwise known as the mantle cavity) with a dense network of blood vessels. The hero of our article does not breathe through the nose or through the mouth - the air enters the lung through a hole at the edge of the mantle.

If you start dissecting a slug belonging to the Limacidae family that lives here, you can remove a thin, translucent round plate from the patch. This is a shell. However, one should not think that the slugs, jealous of the shell snails, gradually decided to acquire their own house. The situation is just the opposite - the plate is not the beginning of evolution, but its end, a rudiment left over from the shell of distant ancestors.

And one more anatomical detail - the lower side of the body of slugs, like all gastropods, is a flat leg with strong muscles. And yet the leg cannot be confused with the belly - it is separated from the body by a clearly visible annular groove.

WHY DOES A SLUGE NEED SLIME?

Night gluttons go fishing, gliding on a single leg. So that the delicate body does not suffer from contact with the ground, the mollusk prepares a smooth path for itself, continuously secreting mucus from a special gland, the hole of which gapes under the mouth. In addition, on the foot itself, more precisely, on the sole, many single-celled glands secrete mucus. The same cells are scattered here and there on the surface of the body. The basis of sticky mucus is mucopolysaccharides, widely distributed in animal and plant tissues. These are high-polymer substances built from residues of uronic acids and amino sugars with an acetylated or sulfated group. Mucopolysaccharides easily dissolve in water, giving viscous solutions.

In addition to lubricating the road, a lot of mucus is consumed when laying eggs. Mucus also helps to escape from predatory beetles that attack slugs. The main purpose of viscous mucus is to protect the mollusk from drying out. Without mucus, these creatures with thin and delicate skin would die from excessive loss of water on hot days. In dry summers, when the soil dries out, slugs fight for life, surrounding themselves with a cocoon of soil particles glued together with dried mucus.

While our story was going on, the slugs finally got to food. They crawl towards it, guided mainly by their sense of smell (some types of slugs smell food at a distance of two meters). Having taken a fancy to a young plant, a strawberry or a fallen apple, the night robber uses his grater tongue and begins to scrape the prey. In order for the grater to be pressed more tightly to the surface being processed, the jaw - a horny curved plate - presses on it; in some species it is smooth, in others it has several transverse ribs. The abundance of teeth (for example, the field slug has about 8400 of them) allows you to quite quickly scrape together food even from dense root vegetables (carrots, turnips), not to mention delicate strawberries. Slugs are bisexual creatures, with sperm and eggs coexisting in the same gland. However, there is no self-fertilization: eggs begin to develop in the gland only when sperm leave it. Slugs lay under lumps of earth, in cracks in the soil, and in dense plantings, right on the ground, near the root collar of plants, piles of 10-20 eggs, similar to eggs. From the eggs, the total number of which in an individual is usually 400-500, babies hatch after three to five weeks and become adults in two months. Therefore, the number of slugs increases sharply in the second half of summer, especially if the summer is damp. Slugs, with the exception of field and netted slugs, produce one generation per year. Life expectancy is short - a year or two. So by winter, the vast majority of individuals go to another world, and their eggs remain to spend the winter. Only a few species of slugs overwinter juveniles and sometimes adults.

ARIONIDS, LYMACIDES AND RUBBER SLUGS

Field and netted slugs - Deroceras agrestis and D. reticulatum - usually feed in garden plots. They are of medium size (4-5 cm when extended). The first of them is fawn, the second is yellowish with dark spots. Both of them, like other slugs, are very voracious. However, in difficult times they can live in a shelter without food, if it is humid enough, for up to two months.

If you go to a forest near Moscow, you will involuntarily meet a small slug from the Arionidae family. This brown arion feeds only on mushrooms, eating deep holes on the caps. In the forest you can also find a large arion, a dark slug that grows up to eight centimeters. He doesn't shy away from mushrooms either. But its closest relative, the large slug Arion bouguignati, prefers a menu of seedlings of grain crops or clover. If you are very lucky, you may encounter a large slug, rare for our forests. He has a beautiful slender dark gray body, a mantle with black spots, followed by a white keel along his back. When he raises his head with his tentacles proudly extended, you can see that there is also a white stripe in the middle of the sole. However, Brem claims that the most beautiful European slug is Amalia marked. She lives in the mountains of Thuringia (GDR), but only where limestones come to the surface. The length of her and our middle zone slugs is no more than ten centimeters. But in the Caucasus there is a huge black slug, its length in an extended state is 15 centimeters!

In general, the Caucasus is famous for its unusual species of slugs. For example, it is not harmless vegetarian slugs that live there, but predators. They feed on soil worms and, hunting them, climb into the ground. Perhaps the most interesting slug does not come out of the dungeon at all. Zoologists call him the cave robber. They found him in one of the caves in Abkhazia. As befits a real underground inhabitant, who never appears in the light of day, his body is devoid of pigment. Internal organs are visible through the white skin. He doesn’t need eyes (what can you see in pitch darkness!), so they went under the skin and, although the rest of the layer of pigment cells and the vitreous body with part of the lens survived, they no longer perceive light. But, in all likelihood, this slug has an excellent sense of smell and touch.

Shell slugs - testacella, although they are not found in our country, deserve a special discussion. The respiratory opening and the opening of the intestine, which in ordinary slugs are located near the head, in testacella are located at the posterior end of the body and are covered by a very small mantle with a tiny shell. The cylindrical body of the mollusk, like a durable spacesuit, is covered with thick skin. A spacesuit is necessary for testacella - they dig deep in the ground in search of their favorite food, earthworms. Instead of a tongue, these slugs have a jointed, cylindrical proboscis that can quickly protrude from the mouth and then retract back. Sensing the proximity of the worm, the testacella throws out its proboscis, grabs the worm with it, and then methodically and stubbornly drags it to the mouth. This is how the mollusk catches prey that is superior to it in both speed and size.

INVOLVED TRAVELERS

In the old textbooks of zoology, the residence of slugs on the globe is clearly stated. Limacids and arionids are European slugs. Philomicides live in Asia and America. New Zealand and the islands of Oceania boast their own unique slugs. Alas, the current picture of the distribution of slugs has little in common with these old ideas: the mollusks were seized by a passion for changing places.

Looking at them, it is difficult to understand how they can settle even within one country. They move slowly, and one can say about them: "the snail is coming, someday it will be." In addition, slugs are very demanding on the environment, which prevents them from traveling through different landscapes. Sometimes in the early morning in wet weather, hordes of field slugs can be seen crawling from field to field. Such carpets of slugs occupy several meters in length and width. As soon as it warms up, the carpet is gone.

Experts believe that long-distance voyages of slugs are impossible without the help of wind, birds and animals. Rivers and streams also make their contribution - during floods they wash away the inhabitants of the banks, including shellfish, and transport them to new areas. Shell snails float in their own shell boats, while slugs travel on branches or pieces of bark. But the main help in the global invasion of slugs was man. By sowing fields with grains and grasses, people provide slugs with abundant food and often give them a more comfortable microclimate. Humans have provided lifelong shelter for some species of slugs in cellars, barns and basements. He made them synanthropes (the so-called animals that settle in places affected by economic activity). In countries with dry and hot climates, slugs now live happily near irrigation systems. With plants and soil, with fruits and vegetables, with industrial wood, slugs even reached other continents. Thus, the European synanthropic reticulated slug now lives in all parts of the world, and in the USA, New Zealand and Australia, along with cultural landscapes, it has also mastered natural ones.

And it’s no wonder that in many countries terrestrial mollusks have become quarantine objects. A whole book could be written about the intentional or accidental introduction of shellfish. Therefore, it is better to limit ourselves to examples that relate only to our country and only to slugs.

The slug Lehmannia valentiana lives on the Iberian Peninsula. Or rather, his homeland is there, because now he lives in the USA, South America and Australia. About twenty years ago he was suddenly discovered in Tashkent. And in large quantities. And just recently it was found in greenhouses in the Rostov region.

Considering the scale of our country, given the diversity of its geographical zones (and, consequently, the diversity of mollusk species), serious harm can be caused not only by the import of slugs from abroad, but also by the import from one republic to another. Here is the dramatic story of the very dangerous glutton Parmaeel la ibera, whose homeland is Lankaran. Before the war, a batch of these slugs was delivered to Sukhumi (apparently for research purposes). Thanks to someone's negligence, some of the slugs escaped into the wild. The Black Sea coast of the Caucasus was to the taste of gluttons, and they quickly occupied the coast, becoming an extremely dangerous pest of gardens and vegetable gardens. By 1965, these slugs reached Sochi, and now they threaten Crimea.

And it is not at all by chance that the role of humans in the spread of terrestrial synanthropic mollusks was discussed at the Second All-Union Meeting on the Study of Mollusks (1965). The meeting made a recommendation: to include a number of mollusks, including all slugs, in the list of objects of external and internal quarantine services. But the recommendation has not yet been taken into account. Slugs, of course, are happy about this and continue to add to the list of alien pests. In recent years, two more species of slugs, new to the republic, have appeared in Tajikistan, and they have divided their predatory seasons among themselves: one causes harm mainly in the fall, and the other in the spring. From somewhere in the south, Limax flavus and a large slug entered the greenhouses of Leningrad. They were also found in Estonia and the Kaliningrad region. The journal Plant Protection reported this at the end of 1979. Isn't it time for the quarantine service to listen to the advice of experts expressed fifteen years ago?

HARM AND BENEFITS

Slugs do not disdain anything: ripening strawberries, fallen apples, vegetables, flower bushes, kitchen scraps, crops of grain crops and clover - everything is suitable for food. In greenhouses and greenhouses they rub vegetable and flower seedlings with their grater; Potatoes and root crops are damaged in vegetable stores. And they also spread fungal plant diseases - the spores of these fungi pass through the digestive tract of the mollusk without being destroyed.

It must be said that the role of slugs as carriers of invasions has been studied much less than the role of shell snails. However, other aspects of the life of slugs have not been fully studied. Malacologists cannot be blamed for this - slugs do not have a shell on which to put a mark with paint so as not to confuse this particular snail with the others. Fortunately, a simple and reliable way to apply marks to slugs has recently been found - the so-called cold cauterization with a metal rod cooled in liquid nitrogen. One can hope that the study of slug biology will now progress faster.

To be fair, it must be said that slugs, robbing a field, forest or garden, sometimes destroy other pests. For example, slugs grazing in beet fields prefer to feed on those beet leaves on which the harmful beet fly has laid its eggs, and first of all eat the clutches of these eggs.

Will some new beneficial properties of these creatures be discovered? In the meantime, slugs are of little use. For example, fishermen bait them on hooks. Aksakov also wrote in “Notes on Fishing”: “You can fish with rockers, butterflies, flying cockroaches, in a word, all insects and even snails (slugs).” The ancient Greeks treated slugs differently - they attributed medicinal properties to the vestigial Limacid shell. And ointment made from slugs was in use in Europe until the middle of the 19th century. In Italy, some species of limacid are consumed as food. That, perhaps, is all.

But there is also news. Several years ago, a report appeared in the press that the drug “Mukostabil” had been created in Bulgaria for the treatment of stomach and duodenal ulcers. Its basis is the mucus of the “garden snail”. This viscous mucus, entering the stomach, envelops its walls with a protective film. And in an article on oxygen consumption by slugs, published by the journal Space Biology and Aerospace Medicine, it is written that “this is part of the work to evaluate the promising use of mollusks as part of closed life support systems,” in which terrestrial mollusks could become a source of complete animal food. So you should still treat slugs with respect...

How to deal with slugs

Slugs are especially active in neglected, unkempt gardens and vegetable gardens, which best suit their needs. Therefore, the garden plot should be free of debris and weeds, lawns should be trimmed, and dense thickets of perennials (for example, phlox) should be thinned out. If ditches are dug along the edges of the site, you will have to ensure that they do not become overgrown.

It is better to start fighting slugs at the moment they appear, without waiting for a massive invasion. The presence of parasites is indicated not only by eaten leaves and berries, but also by shiny silvery stripes of dried mucus on the leaves and soil. Once you see these traces, you can use metaldehyde. This drug is approved for use on individual sites in the form of granules containing 5% metaldehyde - a strong intestinal poison for all shellfish. Granules (at the rate of 3-4 g per 1 m2) are poured between rows and on paths no later than 20 days before harvesting. Using metaldehyde in greenhouses and greenhouses (1 g per 1 m2), you can completely save cabbage or tomato seedlings from slugs.

What to do if you don’t have metaldehyde on hand? Try to get the so-called coupon creolin - it is available in veterinary pharmacies. A 1% aqueous emulsion is prepared from it. Spraying the soil and plants twice (with an interval of 3-5 minutes) late in the evening, when slugs crawl out to hunt, will kill the individuals that have been exposed to the emulsion. But there is no need to water the entire area - treat only the areas where slugs accumulate. The approximate rate of liquid consumption for double treatment is 1.5-2 liters per 1 m2. Considering that not all slugs immediately emerge from their daytime shelters, it would be good to repeat spraying in the middle of the night.

If you haven’t got hold of cup creolin, you can pollinate the soil and plants with finely ground superphosphate, fluff lime or a mixture of slaked lime and tobacco dust (1:1) from a gauze bag. Powder consumption 25-30 g per 1 m2. After an hour or two (if you use superphosphate) or after 15-20 minutes (if you use lime), the treatment is repeated.

If the number of slugs in the area is small, you can get by by catching them by hand. By spreading burdock leaves, pieces of bark or plywood moistened with water (the bark should be placed with the bast layer down) or wet burlap over the area, you seem to lure slugs into these damp shelters.

You can also use real bait - the most delicious food for slugs: large branches of dill, lettuce leaves, fallen dahlia flowers, zucchini, pumpkin, melon and watermelon peels. They write that slugs love kefir and climb into wide-necked milk bottles with kefir residues laid out among plants. And one old book claims that slugs love rancid (precisely rancid) fat and, if you put planks smeared with such fat in the garden, all the slugs will gather on them. Should I check this?

Some books and magazines say that caught slugs can be fed to poultry. This should not be done. Chickens that peck at such slugs get sick with daventosis, lose weight and lay eggs less often. Therefore, it is best to burn the collected slugs.

Slugs that have died from metaldehyde must also be collected and destroyed - after all, metaldehyde is toxic to warm-blooded animals, and it is quite possible that slugs that have died from it can unwittingly cause the death of birds and hedgehogs. By the way, if you notice a hedgehog in the garden, do not drive it away! He will become a faithful assistant in the fight against slugs - for hedgehogs they are a delicacy.

​Related Articles​

​. First of all, slugs are prey for hedgehogs, moles and shrews. A hungry rat will not disdain a slug. Many amphibians will also readily snack on slugs: frogs, toads, salamanders. Slugs are part of the diet of lizards and snakes. And there are also birds: large passerines, most ravens, many waterfowl are ready to snack on gastropods.​

​A huge slug - up to 25 cm long, yellow in color, sometimes with tiger-brown spots, distributed along the Pacific coast from California to southern Alaska. During the process of evolution, this mollusk lost its shell. From the point of view of adaptability, this turned out to be more advantageous - there is nowhere to hide “halfway”, but you can squeeze into any crack and even burrow deep into the ground, hiding from drought or enemies.​

How to remove slugs?

​ATTENTION! If the berries are already ripe, then you cannot use chemicals, as the strawberries will become toxic. And we want to grow an environmentally friendly product in our garden.​

​Slug​

​In addition, they appear in computer games (for example, the Royal Slug in Terriak) and as characters in books (the Horned Slug is used as an ingredient in magic potions).​ Mucus saves them from drying out

​, ends are tapered.​

womanadvice.ru

Overview of slug species: large roadside slug, large black, naked slugs and a number of others

​Popularly also called Spanish and Lusitanian. Brought to Russia by accident ​It is distinguished by the presence of small black dots and specks​ Scientists have found that the diet of a voracious slug

Types of slugs

Vegetable (garden)

​There are some animals or insects, the very sight of which causes disgust in most people. All living creatures perform some kind of mission on Earth, but not many women can calmly look at this naked creature, which leaves behind nasty marks on plants or walls. As long as they don’t try to breed them in gardens or basements. And it happens that they get into apartments, causing a lot of inconvenience with their mere appearance. What are these slugs, and how can you get rid of them effectively and quickly?​ ​Red roadside slug on the edge of the forest (near the reclamation ditch)​ The slug has many enemies - large birds, raccoons feast on it, and even a coyote will not disdain the slug in times of hunger. The slug itself feeds on everything it comes across - leaves, lichens, mushrooms, all kinds of dead living creatures and even excrement. The benefit of the slug lies in its indiscriminate feeding - it speeds up the processing of organic matter in nature.​

​The most difficult of all methods of fighting slugs is collecting them by hand;​ ​Lehmannia nyctelia​​However, do not get carried away by their non-standard attractiveness

​, regularly released for protection. Lives in Europe, including the CIS countries. Settles in always wet meadows, near various bodies of water and in swamps.​ ​lives in warm regions of Europe​

​covering the mantle.​ ​includes more than 160 types of crops​​What are slugs?​

​Even if all these enemies were not ready to attack an adult red slug, which is estimated to reach a maximum length of 15 cm, they would destroy the vast majority of the small gastropods. But that doesn't happen. For a very obvious reason - most of the listed enemies of slugs are enemies of agriculture, only larger and more visible, and not only European, but also our Russian farmers have been successfully fighting them for a long time.

He has four “horns” on his head. Two long ones - with small primitive eyes at the end. They can distinguish between light and dark and possibly the shape of objects. By bending its horns, the mollusk can simultaneously look in any direction. The lower tentacles are the organs of touch and smell. And if the slug’s eyesight is weak, then God has not harmed its sense of smell - thanks to it, it finds its often unsightly lunch. Soft and boneless, mollusks gnaw, or rather grind, food with their specially developed dental “grater”. They move with the help of wave-like movements of the muscles located on the sole of their huge “legs”.​ ​Another way that​ ​, eating a cap mushroom​and still remember the damage they cause. You can learn this from the material “Methods and methods of dealing with slugs.” After reading it, you will become familiar with chemicals and traditional methods of fighting slugs. Also, read our article “Fighting slugs in the cellar (basement).​

Naked

​Another exotic guest, this time from Eastern Australia​ ​Differentiated by increased moisture-loving properties, resistant to cold​.​

In addition, it also has a longitudinal black stripe running across the entire surface.​ ​. Outwardly, it is completely inconspicuous; thanks to its color, it is difficult to detect.​​We will try to study these creatures in more detail in order to choose the right method to combat them. There is such a class of animals - gastropods. Our opponents belong to them. If ordinary snails have a shell, then in slugs it is either underdeveloped or does not have one at all. They lay their eggs in the soil, to a depth of approximately 20 centimeters. The larvae do not immediately come to the surface, and live in the ground for about two weeks. Simply loosening the surface layer of soil can destroy them. At the age of two or three months, slugs mature, and in a year they are capable of raising two generations. These creatures live quite a long time - up to five or seven years. During the winter, they hibernate after burrowing into the soil or fallen leaves. Both larvae and adults feed on plant foods. Most often in dachas you can find a garden or grape snail. The ones that cause the most damage are the black creatures, which reach a length of up to 15 centimeters. Garden slugs are slightly smaller in size - up to 4 cm.​

​There are no moles - there are slugs. There are no frogs - there are slugs. There are no birds - there are slugs. Why be surprised?​ The slug's head is covered with a "mantle", and there is a breathing hole on the right side. These mollusks are hermaphrodites, having both male and female reproductive organs, which are also located in them... on the head. They lay their eggs in a hole on the ground, from which small slugs soon hatch and crawl around.​

​will help get rid of pests - the use of ash​ Probably, due to the lack of sufficiently effective devices to prevent dehydration, slugs live only in moist biotopes, such as, for example, the litter of deciduous forests. In the ecosystems existing there, they play a significant role, eating fallen leaves, non-lignified parts of living plants, as well as mushrooms (including those that are poisonous to other organisms). Representatives of some species are predators and necrophages, eating living soil invertebrates (for example, other gastropods and earthworms) and their corpses.​ ​Different types of British slugs​

​. Its appearance is somewhat different from other slugs. It has 2 tentacles instead of the normal 4.​ ​.​ ​Portugal and Spain are considered its homeland. Can reach 200 mm, but this is rare. The average length of adult slugs is 9-11 cm.​

Big European

​The body shape is oval​ ​The body may be colored brownish​ But you can meet them not only in the garden or garden. These creatures can easily get into the basement, cellar or even into an apartment. If you haven’t seen them yet, the presence of these nasty creatures will be revealed by the shiny mark that they leave on the floor or walls. It should be noted that many chemicals that are effective against other insects simply do not work on slugs. You will need to look for special molluscoids based on copper sulfate or metaldehyde. But you can use them in beds by spreading the granules between the plants, but this cannot be done in cellars and other places where vegetables are stored.​

​A limiting factor in the spread of slugs could be droughts in southern Europe - slugs do not know how to live in a dry climate and quickly die in the absence of moisture. Land reclamation and the transfer of agriculture to technologies using irrigation contributed to the reproduction and comfortable life of slugs. You can, of course, write abstruse articles about the influence of a comet named after an unknown astronomer on the biosphere of the planet, but in fact, we ourselves paved convenient paths for slugs to travel and organized excellent feeding grounds for them.​

The banana slug does not harm forests and agricultural plants, however, other types of slugs brought from Europe cause serious damage to gardens and vegetable gardens. Among them is the now common black slug, slightly shorter and thicker than a banana slug and with a “ribbed” body to the touch. Small slugs are a real scourge for agriculture, especially in the combination of clay soil and humid climate.​

​. Ash can be obtained from a stove or from a regular fire. Before working with ash, it must be sifted through a sieve several times. Apply a thin layer of ash to the strawberry bushes. Of course, it will become very dirty, but it can be easily cleaned with water, but slugs will no longer spoil the berries; Jerusalem slug

​Most land slugs belong to the pulmonate snails from the stalked-eyed group (​

Large roadside or leopard

​And in addition, it is decorated with a clear red or purple triangle on the mantle. The color of the body is very diverse, ​Feeds on various berries​ The color is monochromatic, usually red, brick, orange. The mantle and body are colored the same. The horns are black.​

​, rounded at the ends.​ ​, gray or beige color with yellow and white shades. The mantle is weakly expressed, it is almost invisible on the body.​If you notice a slug in the house, how to get rid of it? In the summer, you can remove all your preserved food from the cellar and carbonate this room. A sulfur block or ground colloidal sulfur should be placed on an iron sheet. A checker purchased in specialized stores is easily ignited by itself, and the ground powder is poured onto the burning coal. You should strictly adhere to safety rules to avoid sulfur poisoning. The premises should not be opened for about three days. When you bring a new batch of food into the cellar, make sure that slugs do not get there again with them.​

​In our Russian conditions, winter frost can affect the numbers of both Lusitanian and red slugs. Adults and small slugs overwinter in the soil, burrowing into it and falling into suspended animation. Our winters cannot be compared with Spanish ones; the soil in the forest can freeze several tens of centimeters deep. The size of the European alien is quite large; keeping all vital systems intact is much more difficult for him than for our ordinary slugs.​

​It's hard to imagine, but these slugs are edible. Representatives of some Indian tribes used them for food in ancient times. It happened that the first settlers fried them in oil. In one of the towns of California, a festival is held, the highlight of which is the preparation and mass consumption of banana slugs.​

You can also sprinkle the perimeter where strawberries grow. Slugs have a fairly wide range of enemies, including predators. Many vertebrates feed on them, however, there are no specific “slug eaters” among them. Of the mammals, slugs are readily eaten by hedgehogs, moles, shrews and some mouse-like rodents; of birds - rooks, jackdaws, starlings and some gulls, and of poultry - chickens and ducks. Slugs are also part of the diet of many frogs, toads, salamanders, lizards and snakes.​ ​Stylommatophora​

Great spotted

​there are soft pink, milky white, dark or light cream ​severely damages plants in greenhouses​​The body is completely covered with wrinkles​

​Distributed in the southern part of Europe and Asia, as it is quite thermophilic.​ ​The body is abundantly lubricated with mucus, which is secreted more than in other species.​ Pollination of the soil with lime (about 20-30 grams per square meter) repels these mollusks. They also sprinkle the ground with salt or treat the plant with a saline solution using a sprayer. But an overdose with this method can lead to their drying out. Try watering your plants with a solution of citric acid (25 grams per bucket of water) or vinegar (25 ml of a 9% solution is enough for 10 liters of water). It is advisable to spray or water the leaves once a week in the evening. If you are being attacked by slugs from a neighboring garden bed and you don’t know how to get rid of them, then try using a lime solution.​

​Red roadside slug in all its glory​​In general, of course, the slug does not take pride of place even among nature lovers. The only exception can be considered the students of the University of Santa Cruz, who chose this unsightly mollusk as their official symbol.​ ​with small sawdust​

​Among invertebrates, many insects feed on slugs. There are especially many of them among ground beetles. ​), among which, however, there are quite a lot of species with a developed shell (​​, olive and red individuals.​

​, in nature eats mushrooms and rotten plants.​

Big black

​.​ ​In colder areas it can live in greenhouses​

​His presence is not difficult to detect​

​At the border, form three stripes, which are sprinkled with slaked lime. Also, some gardeners use mustard or superphosphate instead. They make traps from scraps of boards or rags, soaking them in beer. It turns out that these mollusks also love this product, and it is under such shelters that they most often gather.​ ​However​

​snails in banana skin​

​The large size (up to 150 mm) allows you to get a good look at this handsome guy.​

Ginger

A forest slug can grow up to 15 cm in length during its life. ​It is omnivorous, eating fruits, berries, flowers, and vegetables from the garden. Loves mushrooms.​​and other warm rooms.​

​due to the large number of slimy paths left by it.​​Slugs have appeared in the apartment, how can you get rid of them? Everyone knows that they love dampness and can sometimes be found in the bathroom or kitchen. Salt or mustard powder, which is poured in secluded and damp places, helps. Also, many say that ground coffee works effectively. They cannot tolerate caffeine. A one or two percent solution of a harmless drink will help drive pests out of the area. The main thing for survival is for the slug eggs to overwinter.

Red roadside

​). It is necessary to distinguish between slugs as an ecological group, a life form of gastropods without a distinct shell, and representatives of the slug family ​He always chooses moist, shady gardens and forests for living.​, and sexual maturity occurs already at a length of 3 cm. Young individuals are always colored chestnut, which most often changes.​

​Very prolific species​

​He eats a variety of vegetables, but most of all he loves mushrooms,​ ​This species can be found in almost any part of Europe. Which is not surprising - after all​And since garden slugs are omnivores, most garden and vegetable crops can become spoiled. Of course, it is impossible to describe all known species of terrestrial slugs, since there are quite a lot of them. We

​, and this, as you know, is a completely different matter. Eggs can be stored inside the root plexuses of trees, in earthen burrows, and simply in the depths of a pile of leaves. The egg itself is a much more resilient form of life, and one slug can lay up to hundreds of eggs in one clutch. (I don’t know who thought this and how, but the figure wanders from article to article.) How often a slug can lay eggs is unknown; I have not found reliable information. Our gray slugs seem to do this once a year - in the fall, with a lifespan of 1 to 3 years. But again, these are all separate empirical data.​ ​slug, mother​strong solution of table salt

​Slugs harm potato tubers and foliage, white cabbage and cauliflower, lettuce, various root vegetables (foliage and areas of root crops protruding from the soil), seedlings and young shoots of many vegetables, bean and pea leaves, strawberries, cucumbers and tomatoes, as well as citrus plantations and grapes. They cause less harm to red cabbage, parsley, garlic, onions, leaves of ripening cucumbers and strawberries. They cause especially significant harm to winter wheat and rye, eating both newly sown grains and their seedlings. Oats and barley are less affected by slugs; They practically do not touch spring wheat, flax and buckwheat. Crawling from one plant to another, slugs contribute to the spread of various fungal and viral diseases among agricultural crops - cabbage spot, downy mildew of lima beans, late blight of potatoes. These diseases can cause losses to the farm no less, and often greater, than the direct harmful activities of slugs.​ ​Limacidae​​, wasteland. They often sneak into residential buildings, aiming for bathrooms where mold eats. In nature, it eats woody lichens, especially on eucalyptus trees.​

Brassicas

​The color of adult slugs is very diverse and varies from milky white to blue-black.​​. All adult slugs are hermaphrodites.​

​especially champignons​​naked slug is quite fertile

​collected the most famous​ And we must not forget that​Snails or slugs​

Field

​for spraying plants. For the very delicate skin of slugs, this solution will be destructive.​ ​Sea slug​​, a strict biotaxonomic unit.​

​Has medium dimensions, growing by 80 mm. The body is colored orange, brown or dark red. The mantle is smooth, occupies a third of the body.​ ​Habitat is very extensive and includes the British Isles​ When mating, they mutually fertilize each other and lay eggs in 5-6 days, up to 400 eggs each. Unlike other varieties,

​.​

​for this.​​and common. See photos of slugs with names in the material.​

Smooth

Any summer cottage will provide slugs with enough secluded places where they can comfortably and calmly wait out the coldest winter. ​This is a pregnant snail!​​Another option is to make traps, as shown in the video below.​

​Elysia chlorotica​ ​Structure diagram of a slug​ The body itself is covered with folds and wrinkles

​, all of Northern Europe and the Pacific Northwest.​ ​Egg laying occurs in spring and summer​​The damage is quite serious due to its large size and fairly long life span of 3-4 years.​

Forest

​One of the largest pests of this family. Big slug​They are also called naked slugs.​

​.Perhaps this is why flower growers write hysterically about slugs on their blogs, and not ministers broadcast pathetically and tragically from the screens of zombie boxes.​

​assimilates algae chloroplasts​ ​Deroceras agreste​​.​

​He is unpretentious in food, almost omnivorous.​

Banana

​, young slugs “hatch” within a couple of weeks. They grow in 2 months to the status of a “sexually mature adult.”​ ​The largest black slug in the whole world​​boasts a length of up to 150 mm​

​They have an elongated body​​In articles by distinguished agronomists and honored farmers, further discussions would go on about how and what is the best way to lime a slug. But I will not discuss the issues of mass killing of slugs. I myself am too lazy for energetic military measures, and I consider fussing for every inch of land free from pests on a scale of six to fifteen to thirty acres to be pointless. Besides, I don’t feel the right to deprive other creatures of life just because I wanted to admire some vegetation right here and now, and they prevented it. As long as we are not talking about cultivating the land for our daily bread, there is no point in fighting what nature itself has come up with. As for what chemists and biologists came up with, let them figure it out themselves.​ ​Wedding of slugs.​

​The chance of the Slug King appearing is 1:300 within 24 hours, subject to certain conditions:​​Vaucheria litorea​

​1 - notum, 2 - mantle, 3 - eye tentacles, 4 - tactile tentacles, 5 - pulmonary opening, 6 - leg, 7 - edge of the leg Slugs in the process of mating ​Not afraid of the cold​​Can feed on live and half-rotten plants​

​Despite the relatively short length​, which reaches 300 mm in length. The black slug has a black mantle, decorated at the edges with small light specks.​ ​. The coloring is also quite extraordinary.​

​, which can change shape due to muscle contractions. The body is always moisturized with mucus, which is constantly secreted. Red roadside slug and the hand of a 9-year-old child. Estimate the size of the stretched out slug And this is far from the largest specimen of the snail, but it looks a lot like a bell pepper)))

Redtriangular

​The player is 1/3 of the map width away from the spawn point.​ into the cells of the digestive tract. Chloroplasts are able to photosynthesize in the slug's body for several months, allowing the slug to live off the glucose produced by photosynthesis. The slug genome encodes some of the proteins needed by chloroplasts for photosynthesis.​

The body of land slugs is quite elongated in length, but is capable of changing shape due to muscle contractions. Externally, slugs have bilateral symmetry. It is disrupted only by the unpaired pulmonary foramen located on the right. The skin epithelium secretes a large amount of mucus, which prevents the skin from drying out, promotes better gliding over the surface, and also repels predators.​ ​distributed in Europe, including the Northern part and Siberia in Russia​​, any mushrooms, carrion.​

​(3-4 cm), these slugs cause significant damage to all types of cabbage. They settle on heads of cabbage and begin to gnaw through many passages inside, not content with damaging the outer leaves.​

​The sole is in two colors - gray on the sides and black in the center. The color of the body can differ even within the same family and vary from monochromatic to decorated with a wide variety of patterns. On top of the main background color (gray or brown, sometimes light brown) stripes and spots of different colors are applied from light, almost white to charcoal black .​

Orange or brown

​The coloring is inconspicuous - grayish, yellowish and light brown.​​Did the slugs prevent me from admiring the flower? Well, so be it. I will admire the amazing creatures that managed to take over Europe. It turns out that they are very, very interesting creatures.​ ​slug​

​Height is greater than zero. He can spawn underground if the other conditions are met and there is enough space for him to spawn.​ ​Ruppert E. E., Fox R. S., Barnes R. D.​​Like other gastropods, the body of slugs is divided into three sections:

​. He chooses forest zones for living; deciduous, mixed, and purely coniferous forests are suitable for him.​

​In Ireland, Germany and Great Britain it is listed in the Red Book.​

Reticulate

The body and mantle are colored brown or brown.​The black slug lives in Europe​

​What kind of big slugs there are, look at the photo.​ There is a grater on the tongue​And finally. How long have you seen a hedgehog on your summer cottage? Ah, a long time ago. And no hedgehog will get into your area, because you have a reliable fence, under which even a mouse will not slip. How long has it been since you removed all the moles? Ah, already a decade. And you don’t want to see any more such misfortune in your life. What do you do with a toad you accidentally see? Oh, you're doing the same thing. Dirty and disgusting... What if it's a snake? Oh, this is terrible horror...​

​Beautiful slugs!​​The potential spawn point should have standard green grass.​

​Lower coelomic animals // Zoology of invertebrates. Functional and evolutionary aspects = Invertebrate Zoology: A Functional Evolutionary Approach / trans. from English. T. A. Ganf, N. V. Lenzman, E. V. Sabaneeva; ed. A. A. Dobrovolsky and A. I. Granovich. - 7th edition. - M.: Academy, 2008. - T. 2. - 448 p. - 3000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-7695-2740-1.​ ​head​​Sometimes found in overgrown parks or in an old cemetery, where there are usually a lot of trees.​

Conclusion

​It is huge in size, slightly short of a black slug.​​with spots of a darker shade. The spots are not clearly defined and are located in random order. The sizes are varied. The horns and head are slightly darker.​ ​, most common in Western and Central. In the Northern regions it can only live in greenhouses.​

​European resident who does not like to move at all​

- many small cloves of hard consistency, arranged in rows.​Continue, dear summer residents, to clean out your plots in accordance with your pathetic illusions, as if you decide who lives here. The red slugs are on their way. Get ready to meet uninvited guests. And get ready to give them everything - vegetables from the garden, fruits from the garden, and even flowers from your favorite flower bed. Slugs love everything. They'll eat it all. Do you think some clever poison will help you? Imagine how much of this poison you and your children will eat and inhale. And think for a second that someone will come after the slugs. After all, someone will come. Necessarily. Are you ready for this meeting?​

rusfermer.net

Slug - Wikipedia

Ground slugs

​Obscenely obese slugs!!!​

​Goblin Scouts spawn under the same conditions as the Slime King, so when they appear, you can be sure that all spawn conditions have been met. You can also use a Battle Potion and/or a Water Candle to increase the chance of them appearing.​ ​Big encyclopedic dictionary “Biology” / ed. M. S. Gilyarov. M.: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1998.​​,​​Feeds at night, looking for rotten and dead roots, carrion, fallen leaves and any mushrooms. If your cottage or plot is located next to a forest, the slug will definitely move in with you, actively causing damage to lettuce, cabbage and other vegetables.​​The length of its body is about 250 mm​ ​They are found throughout Europe, excluding the northernmost regions.​​Black slug photo.​

​and change your habitat.​ ​At the leading edge there are tentacles with visual organs located on them.​​Photo and text: Lazy Summer Resident, 2014​

Structure

​snails.​

​If players kill 150 slimes during the Slug Rain (kills from lava, traps, etc. do not count), the Slime King will appear. If you defeat him, the event will immediately stop - if all players die, the King will run away and the event will continue for some time. If in a given world the Slug King has already been defeated, then only 75 slugs are required for his appearance, and the probability of Rain appearing is halved.​ Slugs (also called slugs) are ugly pests that appear on cabbage, root vegetables and strawberries (they especially love plants with delicate leaves).​leg​ ​A small mollusk that grows 2-3 cm at most​. A striking distinctive feature is its color.​ ​Feeds mainly on cabbage​​Feeds mainly on mushrooms, will not refuse vegetables.​ ​Most often it settles in greenhouses and wet cellars and spends its entire life in them. Omnivorous and unpretentious, can eat any available vegetables, mushrooms and fruits of fruit trees.​​Sizes are small - 25-30 mm​ Slugs are a group of terrestrial mollusks with a partially or completely reduced shell. Slugs are active only at a certain level of soil moisture - they need water to restore mucus, which is consumed during movement and evaporation. In dry years, slugs reproduce poorly, become lethargic, and feed less. During prolonged drought, they surround themselves with a cocoon and wait out the unfavorable period. In wet years they fatten and feast in our gardens :) and also spread fungal diseases.​ A slug is a gastropod ​The Slime King is usually seen as a "side boss" or "mini-boss". Killing him is generally not necessary to further advance in the game, since it does not open access to new NPCs, biomes or items (although the Sticky Saddle or Slime Grappling Hook may be useful in the beginning).​ However, this is not the worst thing. Slugs very often spoil the presentation of vegetables and fruits by leaving a slimy trail in the place where they just crawled. After this, the appetite immediately disappears.​ ​and​​. The coloring of the body is specific - a pattern in the form of a grid is scattered on a beige background, which is formed from crossed thin stripes of a dark color. The pattern is most pronounced on the back and mantle. The tentacles are usually black.​

​It is most often bright yellow, but some individuals are white or green. Usually the color is monochromatic, sometimes dark specks are scattered on the back.​

​, but if there is a lack of favorite food, he can eat mushrooms, various vegetables and leaves.​

In the absence of favorite food, lichen can be eaten ​The length of the body can grow up to 20 cm. One of the largest representatives of slugs.​​.​

​Many species of mollusks have a shell, but in some, such as naked slugs, it is underdeveloped or completely absent. There are two pairs of tentacles on the slugs' head. At the end of one of them there are eyes. The mouthparts of gastropods consist of an unpaired oral jaw and a muscular tongue, the surface of which is covered with rows of small teeth called grater (radula). Using a jaw and a grater, the clams cut, scrape and grind food. This type of mouth organ is called grinding. The wide lower part of the body with which slugs move is called a leg.​

​This is a relatively new inhabitant of central Russia, appearing in summer cottages near Moscow only in the last few years.​

​The Slime King cannot walk or attack through blocks, which gives him the ability to take cover, unlike other bosses.​

​Usually the so-called naked slug operates in our beds. This is quite a serious opponent, which means that you need to fight him using drastic methods.​

​visceral mass

​Found in Eastern Europe, including Russia and the CIS countries.​

Economic importance

The eyes are located on the upper horns

A small mollusk that grows 3-4 cm in length. ​. The large size of the body determines the great appetite and enormous damage caused by voracious giants.​ Body wrinkled, mostly round ​This species can feed on a variety of fruits and vegetables, and especially loves tomatoes, strawberries, cabbage and strawberries. Distributed throughout Europe.​ Field slugs usually appear on plants in the evening and at night, and during the day they hide in cracks in the soil and in other shaded, moist places. Slugs are hermaphroditic animals, since each individual has male and female genital organs. To reproduce, slugs mate. Fertilized eggs are laid in small voids in the soil; the number of eggs varies. When meeting each other, each slug tries to bite off the other's manhood. The one who loses it... becomes a woman and a mother.​

Sources

• ​A large, rapidly reproducing, omnivorous slug of colors ranging from orange-red to dark brown is perceived by many older summer residents as a kind of mutant of the usual slugs, and conversations are usually conducted about the deterioration of the environment and the horrors of the chemical industry, and yet this gastropod is a typical example of importation agricultural pest with vegetables and fruits. A foreign invader, so to speak.​​If the Slime King cannot reach his target, he will teleport to the player. Thus, you can’t just lock it in blocks.​
• ​During the day you are unlikely to see these pests, since

en.wikipedia.org

Slugs and slugs - who are they?

​. The latter, due to the absence of a shell, does not form

​Settles in open areas​

​, and the lower ones, which are shorter, have olfactory receptors.​

The color is dull and unnoticeable ​A clutch may contain about 100 eggs.​​, only in the rear part it is pointed at the end.​

​Harms plants by eating leaves and stems​​http://www.sanpros.ru/depredators/gastropods/ [link blocked by decision of the project administration] A very interesting fact - the record for length belongs to another hermaphrodite animal - the Corsican slug, whose penis at full length is 60 centimeters, which is four times the length of his body. If such proportions were maintained in humans, then the length of a man’s penis would be close to 8 meters!​

Harm or benefit?

​Red roadside slug (Arion rufus) Or perhaps Lusitanian slug (Arion lusitanicus)​

​In Expert Mode, the Slime King has increased damage and health, and summons Spiked Slugs in addition to the regular ones.​ ​slugs are mainly nocturnal​internal sac​

- garbage dumps, meadows, fields and vegetable gardens. Prefers clay soil. Does not occur in forest areas; does not like lush bushes.​

Measures to combat slugs with improvised means

​The banana slug is native to North America​

​, varies from light gray to light chestnut color.​

• ​It is medium in size, the usual length is about 100 mm, but sometimes grows up to 180 mm.​
• ​The basic color can vary from light gray to chestnut, ash and yellowish slugs are often found.​​, makes holes in fruits and vegetables. Thanks to his activity, the crop begins to rot, loses its marketable and decorative qualities.​ ​in approximately the same way as flies))) - with cancer!​
• ​The popular names of this slug - Spanish snail, Lusitanian slug, red slug and other variations on the theme of color and place - apparently go back to the names​​If the player received a message about the arrival of the Slug King and music plays, but he is nowhere to be found, then most likely , he appeared underground and was locked in the tunnels.​ ​. On sunny days they usually hide under plants or in cracks in the soil.​
• ​, and spread out along the dorsal side of the leg ​Considered the most harmful slug​​, they can be found along the Pacific coast, all the way to Alaska.​
• ​Usually plain on both the body and the mantle.​

​Has a very bright body color

vreditel.net

King of the Slugs - Terraria Wiki

Black spots and stripes are scattered throughout the body

• ​Active in cloudy and rainy weather, at night and early in the morning. It hides from the sun in damp lowlands, under earthen lumps.​
• ​lick​
• ​two species of lung snails from the genus Arion: Arion rufus and Arion lusitanicus.​

​As with other enemies or bosses, the Slime King disappears if the player is too far away from him (for example, by teleporting).​

Rain of slugs

Slugs prefer to live in a warm and slightly humid place

Notes

• ​notum​
• ​, actively spoiling the harvest. He loves cabbage most of all. It often renders heads of cabbage unfit for consumption, eating through numerous passages inside. Read the material on how to protect vegetables and berries from slugs.​
• Its diet includes mushrooms, lichens and rotten grass, as well as feces of various animals. Depending on the prevailing food,
• ​Body shape is like a spindle​
• - brick, less often yellow, brownish-green or black.
• ​In constantly wet areas​
• ​sexually, like all mollusks.​

• In Russian these are, respectively, the red roadside slug and the Lusitanian slug. The species are similar to each other; it is hardly possible to determine which one you came across among your favorite roses or in a gently cultivated greenhouse. We can definitely exclude the black variation of the slug - Arion ater is an exclusively nocturnal species that is not yet found here, and in Northern Europe it is even listed in the Red Book (although not as an endangered species). In Europe there is also a large roadside slug - but this spotted creature, growing up to 20 cm in average length, does not seem to live here yet either. (Although they write on the Internet that large slugs have taken root well in both Americas...)​
• ​Attempting to summon a second Slime King will not work and the Slime Crown will not be used, so it will remain in the player's inventory.​
• ​. By systematically watering your plants, you create a favorable environment for the birth of new pests.​
• ​(lat. ​

terraria-en.gamepedia.com

What is this?

~VESNA-LETO~

In addition, when there is a lot of rain, it attacks

​the body can change color

- it is wide in the middle and narrowed towards the ends.

​Inhabits Western, Eastern and Central Europe, North America.​

​See the photo below for what a large roadside slug looks like.​

​(groundwater is almost on the surface, river floodplains) increased fertility is observed. One adult is capable of producing a clutch of 300-400 eggs.​

I didn't see it. In my opinion, they are like real men, they try to do this in the dark.​

​Initially, red slugs lived in the south of Portugal and Spain (in the territory of the ancient Roman province of Lusitania, from which one of the species received its name). Apparently, the main food for these gastropods at first was rotting forest litter, but the development of agriculture provided red slugs with much more nourishing and larger “pastures”. Climate warming, as well as an increase in agricultural land, trade relations, globalization and other achievements of human civilization have contributed to the fact that red slugs, traveling throughout Europe, gradually acquired new habitats - preferring to capture vegetable fields, orchards, as well as grain plantings and various there are vineyards there.

Super Sun

​The Slug King becomes smaller when he loses health.​

Andrey Savitsky

​We can say that slugs are omnivores: they do not disdain slops, ripe strawberries, fallen apples, sown grain, everything is suitable for consumption.​

Lyokha63

QUEEN

​for winter crops​

A-JA

Evgeniy Milovanov

​Inhabits throughout Europe. Lives on the edges of forests, in constantly wet lowlands and meadows. Often moves to gardens, cultivated fields and vegetable gardens.​

Eugene of Chicago

​In many countries it is listed in the Red Book​

Valeria Kornienko

​Lives in Europe, which is its homeland, especially in the Central and Northwestern parts.​

Andrew Comarin

They overwinter in the ground

Nadezhda Tambovskaya

​slugs lay eggs that look like large caviar 2=3 mm in diameter in constantly damp places with minimal access to light

Olga

​Until the first quarter or third of the 20th century, red slugs were considered a scourge only of their original habitats, but

Roldos

​The Slug King can be a source of gel for the Flamethrower.​

Kristina Sinitsina

​Also​

Red slug. Gastropods attack! - Diary of a summer resident

Spanish snail, Lusitanian slug, red slug...

​ - back). On the head there are contractile tentacles (one or two pairs), on which sensory organs are located (developed eyes, organs of tactile and chemical senses). Behind the head on the dorsal side there is a mantle with an unpaired pulmonary opening (​ ​.​

​After fertilization, the clutch contains an average of 70-75 eggs.​

Feeds on young shoots ​.​ ​Its main feature is the method of mating.​

​, the young come out in the spring.​

​When they crawl, they leave behind a strip of mucus with some secretions, then the female slugs crawl along this same strip and fly in!​ ​during the twentieth century, slugs conquered almost all of Europe​​The Slime King behaves like a normal slug, but it can jump higher and further, and it also creates other slugs when it takes damage.​

Welcome, foreign invaders...

The dormant period occurs in winter

​, foliage, fruits and vegetables. My favorite food is strawberries.​ ​In nature, it lives next to humans, settling in fields, gardens, and less often

​Adults attach to trees or other suitable support​

​Small (up to 70 mm in length) and​

​With cuttings, of course!!!​

​, after which they moved east, that is, towards us. It should also be noted that until the 1990s, supplies of agricultural products from Europe to Russia were simply not carried out; European vegetables and fruits came to us only a couple of decades ago. Along with them, obviously, came red slugs, which by that time in Europe had already been recognized as catastrophic pests.​ ​Piercing weapons can not only hurt the Slime King, but also the slugs he creates.​​! Livestock become infected by eating grass through which a slug has crawled. And the chickens get sick by pecking these same slugs from the grass.​

​), leading into the mantle cavity, which functions as a lung. The anal opening is located next to the pneumostomy.​ Horned slugs are kept in apartments​when temperatures become high and the weather becomes dry.​

We'll sweep it up, we'll take it out... We'll live on a bare planet.

​A small mollusk that grows 25 mm in length. The mantle is located on the upper half of the body. The color is always monochromatic, the color can be brown, reddish, black.​

​can be found in wooded areas​

​with the help of thick strands of mucus and hang down. It seems that they are floating in the air.​

​the most frequent visitor to vegetable gardens​

​Slugs do not have a shell, or there is a remnant of it on their back in the form of a plate hidden under a fold of skin.​

​What provoked the rapid growth in the number of slugs and their rapid spread over such a large area? A couple of online publications evasively talk about the absence of natural enemies in slugs, which leads to an uncontrolled increase in their numbers. But there is obvious deceit in this kind of approach -

dnda.ru

How do slugs reproduce?

™Unquenchable Star... ®

​The largest jump of the Slime King can reach 17 blocks in height.​

​Slugs not only cause harm by eating greens in the field, they also eat other equally dangerous pests. However, in the end, the harm from the activities of slugs is much greater than the benefit.​

​Most slugs retain shell rudiments, which are usually internalized. This rudimentary organ serves to store calcium salts and is often found in conjunction with the digestive glands. Internalized shells can be found in members of the families Limacidae and Parmacellidae, while shells are completely absent in adult members of Philomycidae, Onchidiidae and Veronicellidae.​

​as pets.​

Olik

​At this time, slugs find a dark, damp place and hibernate.​

Uncle Yurik

​Cylindrical shape​

M Grieg

​, again close to human habitation.​

HONEY...lime

​A large representative of the family, which can reach 130 mm in length.​

Evgeniy Weber

​. Absolutely omnivorous, can feed on almost any plant.​

NyutiK

Traces of damage left by mollusks are very characteristic: on the leaves there are irregularly rounded holes, and on the fruits and tubers there are wide, shallow pits. In this case, they act with the radula, traces of which are visible on the damage. The field slug usually breeds all summer, laying up to 500 eggs in groups of 20-30 eggs in the ground or under moss. Young slugs hatch from the laid eggs after 2-3 weeks, which become sexually mature after 1.5 months. Thus, the reproduction rate of field slugs is high, but at the same time it depends on external conditions - temperature and humidity. Slugs die off when the temperature rises to 30°C and the humidity drops to 10-15%. Therefore, mass reproduction of slugs occurs in cool and damp summers.​

Coriander is one of the most popular spices in the world, and its greens are called cilantro or cilantro. Interestingly, cilantro leaves no one indifferent. Some people adore it and are happy to use it in any salads and sandwiches, and they love Borodino bread for the special flavor of coriander seeds. Others, referring to the smell that evokes associations with forest bugs, hate coriander and flatly refuse to approach bunches of cilantro even in the market, let alone plant it in their garden.

Watermelon and summer are inseparable concepts. However, not in every area you will find melons. And all because this African plant takes up a lot of space, is quite demanding on both heat and the sun, and also on competent watering. But still, watermelon is so loved that today not only southerners, but much more northern summer residents have learned to grow it. It turns out that you can find an approach to such a capricious plant, and if you want, you can get a decent harvest.

You can cook red gooseberry jam in 10 minutes. However, it should be borne in mind that this is the time required for cooking jam without preparing berries. It takes a lot of time to harvest and prepare berries for processing. Cruel thorns discourage any desire to harvest, but you still have to cut off your noses and tails. But the result is worth it, the jam turns out to be excellent, one of the most fragrant, in my opinion, and the taste is such that it is impossible to tear yourself away from the jar.

Monsters, anthuriums, caladiums, dieffenbachia ... Representatives of the Aroid family are considered one of the most popular categories of indoor plants. And not the last factor of their wide distribution is diversity. Aroids are represented by aquatic plants, epiphytes, semi-epiphytes, tuberous and vines. But despite such a diversity, because of which it is sometimes difficult to guess the relationship of plants, aroids are very similar to each other and require the same care.

Salad "Donskoy" for the winter - a savory appetizer of fresh vegetables in a sweet and sour marinade with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. In the original recipe, the vinegar is plain or apple, but with a combination of wine vinegar and light Balsamico, it turns out much tastier. Salad can be prepared without sterilization - bring the vegetables to a boil, put them in sterile jars and wrap them warmly. You can also pasteurize blanks at a temperature of 85 degrees, then cool quickly.

The main collected mushrooms: porcini, boletus, boletus, chanterelles, boletus, mossiness mushrooms, russula, milk mushrooms, volnushki, saffron mushrooms, honey mushrooms. Other mushrooms are collected depending on the region. And their name (other mushrooms) is legion. As well as mushroom pickers, which are becoming more and more every year. Therefore, there may not be enough for all known mushrooms. And I know for sure that among the little-known come across very worthy representatives. I will tell you about little-known, but tasty and healthy mushrooms in this article.

The word "ampel" comes from the German word "ampel", meaning a hanging container for flowers. Fashion for hanging flower beds came to us from Europe. And today it is very difficult to imagine a garden where at least one hanging basket was not found. In response to the growing popularity of container floriculture, a large number of ampelous plants have appeared on sale, whose shoots easily fall outside the pots. Let's talk about those that are valued for their beautiful flowers.

Apricots in syrup - fragrant apricot compote with cardamom from peeled fruits. These are very useful preparations for the winter - bright and beautiful halves of canned apricots can be used to make fruit salads, desserts or decorate cakes and pastries. There are many varieties of apricots, for this recipe I advise you to choose ripe, but not overripe fruits, from which it is easy to get a stone so that the peeled slices retain the correct shape.

Today, in pharmacies, you can buy a lot of all kinds of medical preparations of general strengthening, tonic action, which are used for colds. Despite this, I always harvest nettles and St. John's wort for the winter on my own, as I consider them indispensable medicinal herbs for the prevention and treatment of colds and many other diseases. What exactly these plants are valuable for, how and when to collect, dry, store and prepare healing infusions, I will tell in the article.

Among species orchids, phalaenopsis are real Spartans. And one of the most hardy species is the four-shield phalaenopsis, or Tetraspis. He is content with minimal care, is not capricious at all, easily adapts. And, unfortunately, almost completely disappeared from the windowsills. Varietal hybrids with their spectacular flowering are found at every turn, but you will have to hunt for each specific specimen. But if you like the exotic, then Phalaenopsis tetraspis is worth it.

Boiled chicken stew with vegetables is a delicious hot dish that is very easy to prepare from available ingredients. Both adults and children will like this dish, it can also be included in a not very strict diet menu when you need to eat something hearty, while not fried or fatty. The recipe for stewed boiled chicken can be categorized as "healthy recipes"! Legs or thighs are ideal for cooking, and the breast fillet will turn out dry, it is better to make cutlets out of it.

I fell in love with roses fifteen years ago. My first roses often upset me: either with multi-colored spots on the leaves, or with a white powdery coating of powdery mildew, or with some other nuisance. What I just didn’t do to treat rose bushes and prevent diseases ... For the last five years, fungal diseases in my area have happened only twice and did not have time to cause any harm to the rose garden. I will share the secrets of preventing a fungal infection in a rose garden.

Fragrant fragrant apricots with delicate velvety skin and pulp melting in the mouth are loved by adults and children. They make excellent jam, marmalade, dried fruits and juices. Not surprisingly, apricot trees are grown in almost every garden in regions with suitable climates. In this article we will tell you which varieties of apricot are best suited for central Russia. In addition, the material will discuss how to properly care for the plant.

Puff pies with sorrel from ready-made yeast-free puff pastry - crispy, ruddy, piping hot, and on your table. You don’t need a lot of sorrel for the filling, you can even mix it with fresh spinach, it will be delicious! Sorrel adds sourness to the traditional egg and onion filling for puff pastries. Remove puff pastry from the freezer 30 minutes before cooking and leave at room temperature so that it thaws a little and becomes pliable.

Among the huge community of indoor representatives of the Aroid family, the syngonium is the only plant that cannot boast of an increase in popularity in the last decade. Everyone seems to have forgotten about this vine. Perhaps due to the rather capricious nature of syngoniums or their similarity with many large-leaved houseplants. But not a single indoor liana can boast of such variability. This is one of the most modest vines, but non-standard.