Small bundle of goo,
wrapped tight - just for you!

Repulsive shell-less mollusk that travels around (in a fashion known as 'gliding') on a cushion of its own mucous. Assault these critters at any given opportunity, or they will chow down on your garden.

drinkypoo says: Not worth a separate WU, so please note that you can kill slugs in your garden by putting out saucers of beer for them. (It's not just for little people any more?) Slugs and snails both love beer, and it kills 'em dead.

A gastropod whose shell is either absent or internal.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Gastropoda
Subclass: Orthogastropoda

Orthogastropoda includes snails, which have external shells, and slugs, which do not. The absence of a shell in Orthogastropoda has evolved independently multiple times, meaning that there is more than one scientific classification for animals commonly lumped together as slugs.

Sea slugs are order Opisthobranchia, suborder Nudibranchia.

Most Land slugs are order Pulmonata, suborder Stylommatophora.

They are rather cute and slimy as mollusks go, but they have a bad reputation because people plant stuff that they like to eat. Whose fault is this?


In the imperial system of measurement a slug is a technical measurement of mass. It is equal to the mass which when acted on by one pound force acquires an acceleration of one foot per second per second. It is equal to 32.174 pounds mass in a standard gravity.

In the metric system, we use the kilogram, and everything is much more simple.

The unit of mass in the english system of measurements (...from the people who brought you such favorites as 12 inches = 1 foot and 5280 feet = 1 mile). To convert to the real way of measuring:

1 slug = 14.59 kilograms

Care and Feeding of Pet Slugs

If you find a fish tank larger than 10 gallons with a fitting screen top, place about an inch of rocks in the bottom to build up moisture and put in 2 to 3 inches of dirt, and put in some moss, a 3 inch slab of tree bark and a tree branch to fit diagonally standing up wide enough for the slug to climb on. They like to eat sliced tomato, peeled banana, lettuce, and strawberries. You can try out different fruits and veggies. When you close the tank don't forget to put a piece of cardboard that covers half of the top of the tank.



by Alyssa Weskoski

Even though slugs are hermaphroditic, that is: each animal equipped with both male and female reproductive organs, they will mate with themselves only if no other slugs are around. If given a choice, they will seek partners to trade genetic material with; this is because, by favouring the passing of chromosomes from both parents to the offspring, rather than just one parent, a healthier pool of slug genes will be raised. The actual exchange of sperm happens before an elaborate courtship ritual, which supposedly reduces the chance of two individuals of separate species mating and giving rise to hybrids.

During courtship the two slugs will circle each other, and both partners engage in ritualised bouts of lunging, nipping, and sideswiping with their tails. The two slugs may also display their disproportionately large sexual organs. The great grey garden slug's penis, for example, is nearly half its total body length! In fact, penis size is refered to in the scientific name of a banana slug species: dolichophallus. This is Greek for "long penis".

The sight of a courting pair of slugs majestically circling one another is almost hypnotic... while they calmly wave their oversized penises overhead. "Athletic" is an even more appropriate word for great grey garden slugs, which are able to mate in mid-air, held up by stretchy strands of mucus up to 45 centimetres long. As courtship progresses, stimulating each other for several more hours, their genital areas swell as the pair move even closer together. Penetration takes place, then each slug alternately releases and receives sperm. Now the slugs must separate, you can imagine the challenge for two animals so well stuck together, and thoroughly covered in sticky mucus. After long bouts of writhing and pulling, the pair may resort to... apophallation. Translated, this means that one slug gnaws off the penis of the other.

Is there an advantage to such odd behavior? Well, yes, according to Adrian Forsyth, the author of "A Natural History of Sex". Forsyth says, the apophallated one, or in a slugs case, amputated one, "cannot regrow his penis and is now forced to be a female and must offer eggs." In other animal species, gigantism has been the reason for extinction. Only by sacraficing their male genitalia, can the species of these slugs beat extinction.

So there we have it. The slug is well hung, can mate for hours suspended by a rope of snot, all to get his pride chewed off in the end. Is there a moral in there somewhere...?

A small metal disc that is roughly the same size and weight as a legal tender coin or token, but can be manufactured very cheaply. Most often used to gain entry to subway systems, although most large cities have moved on to magnetic stripe cards as tickets. It is also possible to use them in arcade video games, vending machines, and pay telephones, although most of those now have a slug rejector of some sort. Many states have laws explicitly outlawing the production and use of slugs to defraud businesses. An unfortunate side effect of a slug is that it can jam the machine, rendering it useless until someone can unclog the coin chute.

In the days of Kings and Queens I was a jester
Treat me like a God, oh they treat me like a leper
You see me move back and forth between both
I'm trying to find a balance
I'm trying to build a balance

--Slug, "Trying to Find a Balance"

The leader of progressive rap band Atmosphere, one of the most famous 'underground rap' groups in business. It is Slug, pseudonym for one Sean Daley, who provides the flavorful poetry and pension for introspection that pervades his crew and gives him some measure of fame in the realm of hip-hop and rap.

Sean, unlike most of his fellow rap artists, has kept his early life (his roots) to himself. His choice has been to thrive and focus on the intricacies of his adult life - the effects and aspects of love, the danger of losing focus, various moments of self-doubt and so on and so forth have been the subjects of his insightful and singularly beautiful poetry. It is his ability to examine the important aspects of human triviality that makes Slug the remarkable artist that he is.

In the early years of his success, Sean Daley, a half-white half-black native born citizen of the United States, was constantly worried about his natural lyrical talent as it related to his "lack of melanin." Slug began to fear that his messages were being clouded by the race issue and that his insights were being forgotten amongst the natural controversy there in. After meeting with close friend Anthony Davis (Ant) and DJ Mr. Dibbs, Slug decided to ignore his doubts and put out some of the most original and intriguing rap music of the past twenty years. The first step was a band called Rhymesayers which released a half dozen forgettable songs a year, though forgettable in the way that only greatness is forgettable. Somewhere along the way (right about 1996), the three main contributors to Rhymesayers decided to create Atmosphere.

Rhymesayers, though innovative, was not successful. Atmosphere, the underground rap creature birthed from Slug's peculiar band of poetry and the low-key stylings of Ant (now his producer), has been, and recently put out its fourth and most innovative album, "Seven's Travels" (2003). With physical, gloomy, funny, and entirely brilliant raps, Slug woos his listeners with a character that is simultaneously the embodiment of the romantic, playboy and philosopher archetypes all the while maintaining and indulging in the lesser and baser (dare I say gangster?) aspects of human (and hip-hop) life. The world of hip-hop has not and probably will not see anything like Atmosphere or Slug for many years.

Before becoming great with "Seven's Travels," Slug and Atmosphere managed to put out a number of significant albums such as "Overcast!,"(1998) "Sad Clown Bad Dub II,"(2000) "Lucy Ford,"(2001) "God Loves Ugly" (2002) and "Modern Man Hustle," (2002) the last of which bears a more strict resemblance to the Backstreet Boys than Deltron 3030.

Sean Daley's future is difficult to predict. It seems unlikely that at his age, thirty-two, he'll suddenly don some golden chains and follow in the footsteps of so many big name rappers, falling into the depths of that horrible gangster and consumerism that so many young poets and the rap listening public so adore. But his particular nitche is starting to lose a little of its glamour. As he becomes more famous (thank you, internet!), Daley is going to fource himself into a couple of creative corners over the next few years. Up to this point, Slug's come through when he had to (save "Modern Man Hustle")and I am confident that he'll have something to surprise us with before too long.

To wrap things up, I've decided to transcribe here a short anecdote about Slug which I like a lot.

Mr. Daley, you see, has a problem with groupies giving themselves away to band leaders, famous actors, daredevils or whatever. He doesn't feel that it's right to have sex with women who want you for nothing other than your money or fame. So, instead of sleeping with the multitude of attractive women who demand entry into his various trailers and dressing chambers, he simply asks that they read to him until he falls asleep and asks that they dog ear the page they finish at, because someone will be reading for them tomorrow.

Many patrons respond to his requests with anger and denial. They want to think that reading to a genius is less important than having sex with him. His point is that while he has plenty of sex with his steady girlfriend, he just can't find time to read with all the travel that musicianing entails. Maybe all that means he's an asshole, but I find it marvelous.

Slug (?), n. [OE. slugge slothful, sluggen to be slothful; cf. LG. slukk low-spirited, sad, E. slack, slouch, D. slak, slek, a snail.]

1.

A drone; a slow, lazy fellow; a sluggard.

Shak.

2.

A hindrance; an obstruction.

[Obs.]

Bacon.

3. Zool.

Any one of numerous species of terrestrial pulmonate mollusks belonging to Limax and several related genera, in which the shell is either small and concealed in the mantle, or altogether wanting. They are closely allied to the land snails.

4. Zool.

Any smooth, soft larva of a sawfly or moth which creeps like a mollusk; as, the pear slug; rose slug.

5.

A ship that sails slowly.

[Obs.]

Halliwell.

His rendezvous for his fleet, and for all slugs to come to, should be between Calais and Dover. Pepys.

6. [Perhaps a different word.]

An irregularly shaped piece of metal, used as a missile for a gun.

<-- also, a colloq. term for bullet. -->

7. Print.

A thick strip of metal less than type high, and as long as the width of a column or a page, -- used in spacing out pages and to separate display lines, etc.

Sea slug. Zool. (a) Any nudibranch mollusk. (b) A holothurian. -- Slug caterpillar. Same as Slugworm.

 

© Webster 1913.


Slug, v. i.

To move slowly; to lie idle.

[Obs.]

To slug in sloth and sensual delight. Spenser.

 

© Webster 1913.


Slug, v. t.

To make sluggish.

[Obs.]

Milton.

 

© Webster 1913.


Slug, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Slugged (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Slugging (?).]

1.

To load with a slug or slugs; as, to slug a gun.

2.

To strike heavily.

[Cant or Slang]

 

© Webster 1913.


Slug, v. i.

To become reduced in diameter, or changed in shape, by passing from a larger to a smaller part of the bore of the barrel; -- said of a bullet when fired from a gun, pistol, or other firearm.

 

© Webster 1913.

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