Kitchen Slugs or Slugs in the late-night Kitchen

by James K. Sayre

Being a part-time nature watcher as well as a housekeeper in an old house gives me a somewhat different perspective on animals that I find living within "my" abode. A couple of months ago, I went to the kitchen to get my late evening snack and I noticed a couple of slugs on the counter top. I was a little put off by their presence, but I took no immediate action and instead decided to observe them. These particular slugs are have a dark brown body with narrow light-colored strips. The largest are about two inches long, while the smallest I've observed are very cute at about one-quarter inch long: minature replicas of the biggest ones.

They don't usually appear on the kitchen tile counter top until about ten PM; almost always they are gone by morning light, although once, a couple of weeks ago, I did see one small one still hanging in the morning around about 8 AM.

The slugs are highly individualistic in their searches for food: some go the recycled plastic margarine tubs that hold kitchen vegetable scraps for the outdoor compost heap, others venture right into the stainless steel kitchen sinks while most seem attracted to bits of vegetables and tiny dabs of dairy products while I have left out near the dish drain.

One wonders what slugs think about in their nightly feeding excursions.

End.

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Web page last updated on 17 April 2005.