h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I stepped in decomposed badger once.

Fortunately I was not bare-foot.

Observations on the giant bannana slugs of the American Northwest, there, they grow to lengths like six to eight inches and in the most pristine environments have a golden yellow color. Its easy to see them as only one step removed from their marine cousins, the sea hares. Walking to town once, during the height of the rainy season, I noticed they got smaller and smaller and their color greyer and greyer as I approached town until, actually in town, they were asphalt grey and only an inch in length. It was then that I realized that they were the same species and the size and color of those people commonly encounter a consequence of the toxic effects of civilization. As to them being snails without shells, actually they're survivors of the late Proterozoic and early Cambrian and never had shells. Molluscs didn't evolve shells until about the end of the first quarter of the Cambrian, but have been demonstrated in Proterozoic fossils.

Garden slug experiment: First wet your hand in a basin of water, then place the garden slug into the middle of the palm. Immerse your hand palm up, slowly, in a basin of water, until the surface of the palm is just flush with the surface of the water. The garden slug can then glide away on the surface tension of the water, looking for all the world like a Loch Ness monster in miniature.

I hate having to put up with them in the garden myself. Once they've attacked a vegetable, I cannot eat it, but must dispose of it.

ITIWBS, that is a most interesting observation about pollution. I wonder if that is why neither birds nor animals appear to eat slugs where I live, in spite of them being offered on a plate(literally)! I am on the edge of our city.

Perhaps they know they are not nice to eat Ours are all sizes and colours, and this year and last, seemed huge. It is an interesting thought though.

Websailor

Decomposed badger might just take the biscuit... though without bare feet, I think Trout is still most gross.


Christiane, I found an email address, and sent a mail but i'm not sure if it's your latest.


ITIWBS, that's amazing. Quite an illustration. They were definitely the same species? I don't study slugs but I'm aware or three, maybe four kinds here. Some going for fresh food, others going for rotting stuff.

Not sure I could try your experiment but would like to - I suppose it would be possible to float a slug off a spoon or something?

<> I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole. rofl

Aren't you supposed to put beer out to kill slugs? Or is that an urban legend?

Beer's fine, they die happy but you still have to dispose of them It's better than salt though


Websailor

I did the beer thing with cider. The disposing is but the other problem was the blackbirds getting drunk on pickled slug. I began to feel guilty seeing them lurching on the wing all round the veg patch.

Oh Was,

You and slugs. !!

No- I dod mpt receove an email you obviously had the old addy.

Anyway, no matter. I have coped in an original way by quietly having a menory-excising exercise. called a TIA

Very effective at calming one down. !

Go well

Am not too sure about your golf course but think that your bete noir is rearing his big head again.

with affection

Christiane.
AlsoRan80

Oh Waz,

You and slugs. !!

No- I did not receive an email so sadly you obviously had the old addy.

Anyway, no matter. I have coped in an original way by quietly having a memory-excising exercise. called a TIA

Very effective at calming one down. !

Go well

Am not too sure about your golf course but think that your bete noir is rearing his big head again.

with affection

Christiane.
AlsoRan80

Hi Chirstiane. TIAs are scary. How are you feeling and what are you taking to prevent any further attacks? My mother had several TIAs until she started taking Plavix. That was about 7 or 8 years ago, so she was about your age when she started having them. She hasn't had one since she began the drug. This has made me a firm believer in Plavix.

Please send either me or Waz your new e-mail. You can still reach me at sofo72 at aol dot com. And do take care.

Hyp

Hi hypatia,

thank you so much. I had never heard about them. what is really awful is the attitude of ny doctor. she informs me that when I have my next one then she will do wsomething about it. I told my son that surely that was enough evidence for me to change my doctor. I do NOT want to have another one, the nest one might be completely paralysing. so I have seen that Plavix advertised when I looked it up on Wikipedia. I think that I shall try and get an appointment with a specialist in London and get the best treatment. My brother from New York is arriving from New York tomorrow morning and he will advise me I am sure.

In Wkipedia it says that it si a warning and that invariably there is a major stroke within three months of the fira TI~A. thank you for your encouraging words.

It certainly happens quickly .

With much affection.


Christiane.
Also Ran 80

Don't place too much faith in Wikipedia Christiane, and anyway doctors have been known to be wrong. Don't dwell on 'the next one' too much.

Websailor

Interesting WS

Two doctors wrong.

Wikipedia wrong.

whom can one believe.?

Anyway, I shall try not not mention it again - although all my hootoo friends have given me such courage to face it.

CME
AR80

!

Christiane. If you email Hyp, she could let me have your current address perhaps?

On Saturday I blocked up where I think the slugs come in to the kitchen with loads of bubble wrap and duck tape - that should fix them. It'll keep the draught out too.

Christiane, I wasn't saying Wikipedia was wrong, just that you shouldn't let such information depress you. Everyone is different, so all doctors can do is give an educated opinion based on the information they have.

Just take it easy and try not to worry. I hope you get some proper, caring advice soon, and some treatment which will set your mind at rest.

Websailor

When I lived in Malawi (1973-6) I went to the kitchen one night to heat some milk for the baby,didn't put my slippers or the kitchen light on,and stepped onto a moving floor - cockroaches! You probably heard the scream from thousands of miles away.

Dear Christiane - don't change your doctor if she's otherwise OK. Possibly you'll never have another attack. Explain to her how worried you feel. Don't rely on anything medical from Wikipedia, as it's possible for non-qualified people to alter the articles.

Wand'rin Star, thank you for confirming my comment on Wikipedia. I think I worried Christiane, but I felt the same as you.

Websailor

Waz, did you use duct tape or duck tape?

A moving floor of anything is a screamable offence. Also ceilings, and walls.

Trout, both - research on the net indicates worldwide duct duck confusion. Definitive BBC EG is obv needed.