These mollusks get to be about 8 inches long and produce a thick slime if you pick them up. According to Wikipedia, this slime (which is difficult to wash off your hands) permits them even to travel across a razor blade. I'm not sure how often banana slugs need to travel across razors, but I'm sure that skill comes in handy.
Thanks for the photos and the slug factoids, Kat.
Had to check it wasn't April 1st yet for a moment there.
ReplyDeleteFfff.
Looks like a weird penis in the first pic o_O
ReplyDeleteI used to go to UC Santa Cruz. You'd seem 'em all the time there. Big ones, up to a foot long some times, some of them with brown spots. They look just like the fallen leaves of bay trees. And the garter snakes there eat them. That was the school mascot, the banana slug. Ah, stoned memories.
ReplyDeletewhen this girl visited from NY she didn't believe us when we told her about the slugs- we took her to Muir woods to look for them :D
ReplyDeleteNever seen a slug as yellow as that. My neighbors here in Oregon go mushroom picking all the time.
ReplyDeleteWhen I went to Science camp near Santa Cruz as a kid, our counselors convinced a few of my classmates that we were required to kiss a banana slug. They told them they were joking...but some of them still did it....
ReplyDeleteIcky.
ReplyDeleteWe had these guys in Maine, but I don't think they're terribly common there.
i never saw any banana slugs as yellow as that in Oregon. they are so fawesome! ^_^ I want one.
ReplyDelete