# Slugs at the donut shop **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 4, 2001, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slugs-at-the-donut-shop/56698 "2001-03-04T05:32:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2001, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slugs-at-the-donut-shop/56698/1 "2001-03-04T05:32:59Z")
A friend asked me this today and I’ve got no clue. She was listening to a gardening call-in radio show where a caller noted that he has slugs that invade his deck. They go for his cat’s food bowl. If he picks up the food bowl they immediately (whatever that means in slug world) do a 180º (I can hear the tires burning) and head for the tree where he’s got a bird feeder about 8’ up. How do they _know_? Is it like bees, where one has happened upon this food source and comes back and does a little slug dance (that’s tough to envision) telling where the chow is? Do they have olfactory powers that I’m unaware of? ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2001, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slugs-at-the-donut-shop/56698/2 "2001-03-04T06:41:41Z")
How is it possible to observe slugs doing _anything_ immediately? Don’t they move at about .002 mph? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2001, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slugs-at-the-donut-shop/56698/3 "2001-03-04T19:44:18Z")
Are you asking, “How do slugs find food?” or “Do slugs eat cat food?” I don’t have a cite for this, but my 99% WAG would be that they leave pheromone trails in their slime trails, so they remember where they ate food yesterday and go back to it. As to the cat food and birdseed: Most snails and slugs are herbivores. [http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~ohioline/hyg-fact/2000/2010.html](http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~ohioline/hyg-fact/2000/2010.html) > [@](#): > > These slimy creatures live in and on the ground and have big appetites for a wide variety of plants found around the home. Young seedling plants are eaten as well as mature plants. However, is this a Pacific Northwest call-in show? Is the guy talking about banana slugs? They eat anything. [http://www.charged.com/issue\_3/columns/guest/doug\_rand/slugs.html](http://www.charged.com/issue_3/columns/guest/doug_rand/slugs.html) > [@](#): > > Armed with those 30,000 sharp teeth, banana slugs will eat just about anything that they can outrun: leaves, mushrooms, algae, rotting meat, fecal material, and more. Lest you laugh (or get set to retch), remember that this diet represents a critical ecological niche; without banana slugs, there would be a lot more carcasses and droppings littering the forest floor. [http://www.nps.gov/alcatraz/nature3.html](http://www.nps.gov/alcatraz/nature3.html) > [@](#): > > Banana Slugs: Arriolimax ssp. > These, usually yellow-colored, creatures can be found in moist areas on Alcatraz. They can reach up to 15-20 cm in length. The slime produced by the slugs assists them in their movements, water retention and defense. Their diet is varied, consisting of vegetation, fungi and dead animals. [http://www.naturepark.com/bslug.htm](http://www.naturepark.com/bslug.htm) > [@](#): > > It is a decomposer, which means it chews up leaves, and animal droppings and other dead plant material and recycles it into soil. One of their favorite foods seems to be mushrooms. Aren’t you glad I’m telling you all this? 😃 Fight a little ignorance and make yourself sick, all at the same time… ---
**Author:** ![suziek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8491ac/32.png) [@suziek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suziek)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2001, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slugs-at-the-donut-shop/56698/4 "2001-03-05T05:02:28Z")
At the Russian River, near Santa Rosa, CA, they have a banana slug festival every year and give a prize to the person with the best recipe as well as various and other revolting contests involving eating slugs. Ughhhhhhhh and yicky, yicky, yicky! I didn’t know they ate rotting flesh so that makes it worse. I thought they were just herbivores.