Friday, October 15, 2010

Slugs

At least the abundant snails happily carry out their adventures outside. The slugs, it seems, like to come inside.

I don't much like slugs. They lack the cheerful curiousity of snails. And, well, they're slugs. I dislike them less than I dislike leeches. No, I fear them less than I fear leeches, I think I dislike them almost as much.

Generally, I never thought about slugs until I lived in a house in Fitzroy. Quite a lot of Very Big Slugs thought they lived there too, and they often seemed to think it in the middle of the night at about the same time I thought it would be a nice time to go to the toilet.

The toilet was in the backyard, so there were robust and outdoorsy snails as well, which I didn't mind until the night I stepped on one while my feet were only wearing my mum's old pink fluffy hockey socks.

I didn't have slippers because I was enduring rent stress, and preferred to spend any surplus on beer. Which probably explains why I needed to go to the toilet in the middle of the night.

Slugs. And snails. Our slimy neighbours.

4 comments:

Wendy said...

I wondered what happened to those very extraordinarily warm, thick, comforting, pink hockey socks, snailed to oblivion did not feature in the many scenarios.

No snails in FNQ but lots of slugs, well behaved slugs, they stay outside, eating the prized veges. But I'll share.

Penthe said...

I did not destroy the socks after the snail incident, I washed them. Yes, I did used to wash my clothes.

I don't mind our small slugs, but I don't like the jumbo, leopard spotted ones.

Roger said...

A person might speculate that leopard spotted slugs are also armed with more serious teeth than a regular slug.

We get them here and they are bigger than slugs have any business being. Although they are possibly more cheetah spotted than leopard spotted so we might also speculate that they can run at high speed, which would be unusual for a slug. Then again, fast for a slug does not have to be very fast.

Penthe said...

Uncertain as to whether speed in a slug is a benefit (they can get away from me more quickly), or a big, big problem (they can get much further inside the house before I notice or prevent them).