The word "slug" alone disgusts people. A nasty, rather vile, shapeless, slippery creature immediately appears before your eyes, which is always crawling somewhere.
Doesn't nature have a mind that could give birth to such an useless, useless animal? To find the answer, you should study in more detail what characterizes the large roadside slug, the photo of which is now in front of your eyes. After reviewing the description of the slug, a person will have an idea of what the appearance of this creature is, what lifestyle it leads, where its habitats are located.
Large roadside (or leopard) slug: appearance
Representatives of this species are the largest of all large slugs. In different parts of the world, these mollusks were brought from Europe, which is their homeland. The large roadside slug is a mollusc of the order Lung snails. Histhe body consists of one leg, which merges with the head of the slug and is called the sole. The length of the body of the mollusk reaches from 10 to 20 cm. Sometimes the body of the animal grows up to 30 cm. It is wrinkled, somewhat rounded, pointed at the end of the back.
The body of slugs is symmetrical on both sides. From above it is covered with the so-called mantle in the form of a plate. Under it are the reproductive organs and the anus. There is a keel on the tail.
The color of the slug is found from light gray to chestnut, sometimes it is yellowish-white or ashy. The entire body of a large roadside slug is covered with black spots and stripes. This "cute" creature has very long tentacles. Their mucus is colorless.
Internal structure
On the back, under the skin of the mollusk, a shell is visible, which, like all other slugs, is greatly reduced. The shell is white in color, resembling an oblong oval in shape, its length is 13 mm, and its width is 7 mm. It is assumed that healing substances are stored there. This shell has been known for a long time and used for medicinal purposes.
The leopard slug's digestive system consists of a radula, pharynx, esophagus, and intestines. In the intestines, four sections have a connection to the liver, while the other two simply hang freely inside the body.
At first glance, this slug looks like a very simple creature, but it has a nervous system that consists of ganglia. Each ganglion has its place:the pedal lies under the radula, the abdominal is slightly to the right of the midline, and the visceral ganglia are located in the middle between the esophagus and the lingual membrane.
Habitats
The habitats of the large roadside slug cover large areas. The habitat is located in the humid and temperate climate zones. Slugs live only in biotopes with sufficient moisture. For them, a very comfortable habitat is the litter of a deciduous forest.
Slugs are native to Australia, New Zealand and North America. They are also found in Western and Central Europe, in the Caucasus, where their favorite places are fields, meadows, forests, gardens and caves.
Big roadside slug: what to feed
These mollusks are herbivores, and are not too picky when choosing food. While keeping in the terrarium, they should be provided with vegetables, fruits and mushrooms. Separately, you need to dwell on what the big roadside slug eats in places of natural residence.
Vegetation is considered the main food for molluscs. The leopard slug feeds on fallen leaves, flowers, fruits, and soft stems of living plants. Mushrooms are sometimes present in his diet. Although these slugs eat a lot, showing gluttony, if necessary, they can live without food for about 60 days, while being in a humid place.
Great roadside slug breeding
This species, like all slugs, has a hermaphroditic reproductive system. Eachthe individual has sex organs that correspond to the sex. Sexual products become mature with a time difference. First, the maturation of the sperm occurs. It represents packaged sachets - spermatophores. Then the secretion of mucus begins in males. This substance is endowed with a smell by which the slug finds its relative.
The mating ceremony of large roadside slugs takes place in a very unusual way. Mollusks hang on mucous threads head down, their bodies are woven into a single ball by their genitals. Since the blue penises of slugs reach a great length, it is not always possible for mating couples to unravel. In this case, some individuals resort to the last resort and bite off the sexual organ, which grows back after a while.
After fertilization, the mollusk lays eggs in the ground, on average, one adult can lay from 30 to 70 large eggs. Their development occurs within 21–35 days, after which small slugs are born. They reach sexual maturity in 60 days. These animals live no longer than two years.
Economic value. Damage inflicted
To nature, slugs do some good, being orderlies. They are able to process leaves that have fallen from trees, making humus out of them. But most of all, these mollusks, including the large roadside slug, cause quite significant damage to agriculture.
These gluttonous creatures cause especially great harm to potatoes by eating the tubers and foliage of the plant. Cauliflower and white cabbage, various varieties of lettuce, root crops, young vegetable plants, as well as fruits of strawberries, tomatoes and cucumbers suffer from the invasion of slugs. Vineyards and entire citrus plantations are affected by this pest.
The Great Roadside Slug causes much less damage to the following crops:
- Red cabbage.
- Roots and leaves of parsley.
- Onions and garlic.
- Crops of barley and oats.
Spring wheat, flax and buckwheat hardly feel the invasion of slugs. In addition to the fact that mollusks voraciously destroy crops, they are also carriers of fungal and viral diseases. Among these pests is a large roadside slug. The description of these diseases, which include spotted cabbage, late blight of potatoes and downy mildew, makes it possible to once again verify the harmfulness of the slug. In this regard, the question arises, how can you get rid of such a nasty enemy?
Methods and ways to deal with slugs
Before you know what effective methods of dealing with slugs exist, you need to study and use all available preventive measures in time. First of all, you need to ensure that the sites have a large number of natural enemies of slugs. These include hedgehogs, frogs and toads.
In addition, a trench must be made around the site, and sprinkled with sand, pine needles, lime and crushed egg shells. Such a barrier slugs will be forced tobypass. Plants in the beds should be kept free from weeds, thinned out in time.
You can fight slugs by picking them up with your hands. To do this, at night, pieces of wet bark or heaps of mowed grass are laid out between the plants, under which the pest will hide. In the morning, the collection of a pest called "big roadside slug" calmly begins by hand. How to get rid of it, people know many ways, one of them is catching clams with a can of beer, which in this case serves as bait for slippery uninvited guests.
If the above methods did not manage to get rid of slugs and mass reproduction of pests has already begun, you will have to use chemicals. Currently, new generation products have appeared that do not pose any danger to the environment.
Interesting facts
Do you know which animal on the planet ranks first among the toothy ones themselves? Probably, it is very interesting for everyone. Although surprising, the most toothy creature that is not a predator is a large roadside slug. There are approximately 30,000 teeth on his tongue! This grater tongue helps the slug grind up all the food it eats and make big holes in them.
It can be concluded that among toothy individuals there are not only large predators, but also mollusks, which are among the smallest representatives of the animal world.
