The Land Slugs 



The gardener who kills this slug does himself and the mollusk 

 an injustice. It is known to eat raw meat, live snails and slugs 

 not excepted. It invades dairies to sip the cream, of which it 

 is desperately fond. It eagerly eats flour and meal. It climbs 

 into the kitchen garbage can, and culls such fragments as bread 

 and butter, meat scraps, fat and cheese. The red binding of 

 certain books was chewed off by night, in one instance. The 

 only food it will not touch is the green substance of growing 

 plants. Hence it is preeminently the gardener's friend. It is 

 not surprising to learn that the introduction of this species into 

 America came through greenhouses to which they were brought 

 by gardeners trained in the old countries. It is found in the 

 neighbourhood of large cities in the east and on the Pacific coast. 



L. campestris, Binney, is a western slug closely related to 

 the preceding species. Its body is almost transparent, one- 

 coloured, amber to black, cylindrical, one inch long, with a scant 

 supply of watery mucus. 



Habitat. — New England to California. 



L. montanus, Eng., is a stout, bluish slug an inch long, 

 found in the highlands of Colorado and Montana. 



The Yellow Slug (L. flavus, Linn.) has a meddlesome 

 habit of poking its nose into meal and flour bags and bins, hunting 

 "broken wittles" in garbage cans, and nibbling the tender leaves 

 of growing vegetables. 



This is easily the most beautiful of slugs. Its keeled back 

 is yellowish brown with oval white spots on the body and round 

 ones on the mantle. The tentacles and sole of the foot are white, 

 the head and eye stalks are semi-transparent and bluish. Length, 

 3 inches. 



Habitat. — Europe. Introduced into eastern cities of the 

 United States. 



The Field Slug (L. agrestis, Linn.) is the pest of gardens 

 and greenhouses, coming out at night to devour tender seedlings, 

 succulent vegetables and ripening fruits, even damaging field 

 crops, such as peas, clover and oats. 



Near our eastern seaboard cities this slug is common in 

 cellars and under decaying boards about barnyards. Many 

 congregate in one place, from which they rapidly scatter when 

 disturbed. They hang head downward by mucous threads 

 from plants and fence rails, especially in damp weather. The 



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