The Night Life of Slugs

I have caught over 3,800 slugs in my tiny backyard in the past few weeks. In the process, I'm beginning to learn their habits. They are not vegetarian; they eat leaves and decaying plant material, but they also eat dead earthworms and bird feces. They like to crawl on cool, moist( but not soaking wet), smooth surfaces like hoses and bricks. They like to crawl up to the top of our brick wall on cool nights and lie there like miniature beached whales. Who knows why?

On rainy nights when the ground is saturated, things get really interesting. They look for dry shelter by crawling up walls. I have found them all the way up under the eaves of our detached garage. I caught 367 last night, mostly on the walls of the garage and the brick wall. I do not have to crouch and bend as much on rainy nights. They must really fear drowning. Tonight, after a sunny but cool day, I caught 270, many of them on the ground or in leaves. Most of that number are very tiny; maybe 10-30 a night are more than an inch long, with maybe 2 longer than 2 inches when stretched out. It is not as gross catching the tiny ones.

They are hermaphrodites, so Fred is Wilma, too. Some of those slime trails on your back porch at night are from their amorous adventures. EEEW! They can lay 50-200 eggs at a time, so I guess the thousands in my backyard should not be surprising. Hope these forays into the dark reduce their numbers soon.