Slug FAQ

• How do I kill slugs?

  I would prefer that you not kill slugs. If you must, please don't tell me. Beer works as a lure and a death that I hope is painless. As an alternative, I suggest that YOU drink the beer, relax and live in harmony with slugs.

• My 7 year old daughter stepped on a slug last night and wants to know for what purpose is a slugs life? Can you help me answer this perplexing question?

  Your daughter's question, like most teleological questions, is as difficult as it is simple. In the big picture the purpose of a slug's life is similar to the purpose of any life. Slugs fulfill roles within the environment that includes functions like converting decaying matter into more useful fertilizers for later generations of plant and animal life. They are food for birds and frogs, some eat garbage and other refuse that lays around and of course many eat hole in leaves of garden plants providing gardeners with things to complain about.

  Some believe that all lives on the planet are in a state of spiritual evolution. In that case a slug's life might be a starting place for a soul with a long way to go. Certainly slugs have served to make me marvel at the unlikely diversity of life forms and they have made at least one little girl stop and wonder.

  I love the question but I am not sure if I have a good answer.