Opening
Welcome everyone to another episode of 8 minutes of Eww! The place where we use curiosity and science to turn fear into fascination and those ewww’s into Oooo’s. Oh! By the way, I’m your host Ms. Mallory, the Curious Conservationist and self-proclaimed grosslologist. Let’s get started.
Intro
If you ever helped in the garden or played in the woods, chances are, you have come across the guests of honor for this episode.
Slugs and snails!
Did you know that most people think they are the same thing? Even though they do belong to the same mollusk family. And they’re both gastropods (which translate to stomach foot). One being a gastropod with a shell and one being a gastropod without a shell. They are, in fact, two different animals but share a lot of similarities.
Slug 101:
Besides a portable home, snails and slugs are basically made up of the same stuff. Looking on the outside you may see two pairs of antennae things sticking out their heads. These thing-a-ma-jiggers are called tentacles and tells slimy slo-poke what’s around it. . The upper set are used to see and smell. The lower set of tentacles that are much smaller are used to taste and feel. And they all work separate from one another. So while one tentacle is looking (or smelling you) the other could be checking out your friend! Could you imagine if our eyeballs were at the tips or our and we had tongues as fingertips?. . . how strange would that be?
They also breathe out of a blowhole on the side of the animal. It’s really easy to see on a slug. On most slugs, the front part looks a little different, usually a different color or looks a little like a saddle. This is called the mantle and protects all the important organs of a slug. If you watch the mantle of the slug long enough, you will see it open when the slug takes a breath. It’s pretty trippy to see fo the first time. It’s sometime harder to find on a snail. Their blowhole is located right where the shell meets the body. They also have over 1,000 teeth, but you don’t have to worry about them any. They are lined up something called a radula that mimics a tongue and are so tiny that they can’t even chew like our teach. Instead it uses its’ tiny teeth like sandpaper and collects its food that way. Want to know my favorite slug and snail fact? Like octopuses and other mollusks, snails and slugs have blue blood instead of red blood. Why? It is a bit complicated, so maybe we will save that explaination for the episode on blood.
Topic 1: Slime
Since slugs don’t have shells to protect themselves, they rely heavily on their slime to level the playing field. A slug uses slime for so many different things: protection, communication, food, transportation, hydration. One thing that people commonly associate slime with is its stickiness. And nothing knows this better than an animal thinking about dining on a fat juicy slug for breakfast. When threatened, the slug can create a strong adhesive from its slime, virtually super-gluing itself to whatever surface it’s currently sitting on and hoping the hungry slug slurper will give up before its slime does.
Another cool slug slime fact is that it’s technically classified as liquid crystal. A liquid crystal? Sounds magical, doesn’t it? Well that’s what science is. Magic, but for real. Think of liquid crystal as the between liquid and a solid chrystal.
Did you know we make liquid crystals too? And you don’t need glue or borax neither. All you have to do is sneeze. The spray that shoots out of your nose and mouth (hopefully into a tissue or your arm) has some of the magical mucus we talked about in an earlier episode that is made of cool liquid crystals.
Topic 2: Slime Glue
Since the slime supplied by slugs is a sticky superpower, scientists have begun exploring the different ways that we can use it as humans. Perhaps one of the most fascinating things a special slime from a particular slug is is teaching scientists about super glue. Current super-glues in hospitals can be used to close wounds instead of using stitches or staples. Although helpful, this glue can be useful, it isn't perfect. When it dries, the glue becomes stiff and hard making it uncomfortable when we move. That’s where slug slime may help. The special slime from a finger size slug is not only sticky, but very tough and stretchy. If scientists can figure out what makes the slime so sticky and stretchy, then they can copy it and make their own version.( sigh) I just love learning from nature.
Topic 3: Sea Slugs
Now we may have to do a full episode on just sea slugs because they are really cool, but I couldn’t do an episodes on slugs without highligting my homestate heavyweight champion. Get your tape measure and scales out, because you will have to see it to believe it.
The Californis sea hare is the world’s largest sea slug with the record being over 3ft 3 inches long and 30lbs! Have that tape measure and scale ready? If so, see how many things that are smaller than a California sea hare. I am sure some of you may have pets, or even siblings, that are smaller than the massive algae eater.
Aside from sticking to things and sliming everything up, these gastropods play a huge role in nature as recyclers and decomposers. At their core, slugs are scavengers love dining on things like dead and rotting plants, leaf litter, fallen fruit, fungus, old wood, animal droppings, toadstools, and compost. You may even occasionally catch one of them nibbling on a leaf, but it is most likely already damaged or diseased. However, they are also omnivores and will eat other animals, mosts pesky critters that you don’t want in your garden.
Outro
Well, my aspiring grossologists, my 8 minutes is up and we haven’t even made it to snails! Goodness times flies when talking about gross things. Did you learn anything new about slugs? Please let me know what your favorite fact was.
Thanks again for joining me and helping me teach others to turn their fear into fascination. You all are such a huge help! Don’t forget to set those notifications so you don’t miss the next 8 minutes of Eww. Until next time, this is Ms. Mallory inviting you to step outside & Adventure .