Thursday, July 19, 2007

Banana Slug

Watch out for that gooey yellow and black thing. It's a banana slug. Living in Florida for twenty years, I forgot about these things. The average banana slug is about seven or eight inches long. When I was in middle school, I would arm myself with them and fling them into my sister's hair.


I see these things every time I run on the trail through the redwoods at Sequoia Park. The day after it rains, these things are all over the place.

Another cool thing to do to slugs if you're bored is to salt them. I won't tell you how it works out. I don't want to spoil the surprise.



12 comments:

Kat said...

not nice, Bryon! Doncha know those things are the mascot of UC Santa Cruz?! :op

Anonymous said...

I miss California.....slugs and all.

Bryonm said...

Rod: California misses you, too.

Kat: who do I owe an apology? Slugs, UC Santa Cruz, or you? :)

Anonymous said...

Bryon,

This post was not very PETA friendly LOL :)

Bryonm said...

Shawn: I'm thinkin' to some people, a salted slug would be tasty in a pita, a wrap, or a hoagie...

Unknown said...

haha I used to salt slugs too. Now that I'm living out here they greet me at my door sometimes...except they're just gray and gooey. Those are pretty cool lookin

-Liz

Kat said...

ROFLMBO.....no apologies needed, just the "ick" factor of watching what happens to a slug after it's salted!
Hey, I'm a girl.....I scream like one, I don't like icky things...but hey, I've eaten escargot,so I wonder if banana slugs would be similar?
:oD
Kat

Kat said...

True confession: Years ago, when I visited UC Santa Cruz for the first time...annnnd discovered their rather 'interesting' mascot.....I BOUGHT three of the rubber ones. :blush:

Anonymous said...

When I was recently visiting my cousin in Illinois and he called "PETA"...People Eating Tasty Animals....I ROTFLOL!!! :):)

Banana slugs are a very KID memory for me growing up in the San Francisco bay area. I remember picking up a few waiting for the school bus. Stuck them in my satchel and forgot all about them. They got out during class and were crawling up the aisle! What a hoot!!!!

Anonymous said...

Bryon...this looks like something I coughed up during our last marathon...

Anonymous said...

Ok, so... a slug. That's like: euw. Then I read that it's 7 or 8 INCHES. And then... then the PICTURE!

You pick them up, make mascots, put them in backpacks? Who ARE you people?!? :-)

I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep tonight!

Anonymous said...

I'm gone for a week and come back to this??? Yuk!! ;o)

I've never seen a banana slug, but I'm betting salt has roughly the same effect on them that it has on snails.

I'm going to scroll down to the post From Susan, not only to read what looks like great stuff, but to elevate my thoughts to a higher plane than...euw! slugs!