Slug

mollusks · garden creatures · slime · slow movers

Shell-less snails. Slugs are really just snails that lost their shells over millions of years of evolution. They belong to the same family as snails but adapted to life without that hard protection.

Slime superstars. Slugs produce a thick, wet slime that helps them slide across the ground and keeps their soft bodies from drying out. This mucus also protects them from sharp objects and makes it harder for predators to grab them.

Live everywhere. You can find land slugs on every continent except Antarctica. They hide under logs, rocks, and leaves where it's damp and cool, which is exactly what they need to survive.

Hungry plant eaters. Slugs munch on leaves, fungi, and dead plants, sometimes becoming garden pests when there are too many of them. They have thousands of tiny teeth-like structures called a radula that help them scrape food into their mouths.

Sea slug cousins. Some slugs live in the ocean and are called sea slugs, and they're often brilliantly colored with bright patterns and even tentacle-like structures. These ocean slugs can be just as squishy and slow as their land-dwelling relatives.