Why do slugs climb?

My girlfriend’s house has a smooth wall out the back. Sometimes there is a procession of slugs slowly climbing up the wall. They are all in a line (I assume that they are all following the trail left by the first one) and they are going up two storeys.

What the fuck are they doing? Escaping ground water? Migrating? :dubious:

The great gray slug climbs in order to suspend itself from a thread of mucus so that it can mate. (And by the way, its mating habits are well worth reading about. I bet you don’t know what “apophallation” means, do you?) Your slugs probably aren’t totally aware what they’re climbing up. They’ve just got to climb, man!

Do yourself a favour, watch it. Truly bizarre.

My wife loves her invertebrates. I once followed her down the rabbit hole of slugs, snails, and liver flukes. Never again. If Satan were capable of creating new life, he’d bypass these as, really, they are truly too gross for polite people. CS Lewis showed us that even the Prince of Darkness has some standards.

Perhaps they want to get high? Just a thought.
When we lived in Japan on the 5th floor of an apartment building we often found tiny frogs on the balcony and outside walls. 5 floors! that’s a hell of a climb for a frog. Maybe they would have climbed higher, but ours was the top floor.

You said it. That has got to be the weirdest mating ritual I’ve seen. The male organs at the neck are completely unexpected.

I always found banana slugs to be quite appealing.

:smiley:

There are ants at the top of the Empire State Building.

[Cole Porter]

Slugs do it, snails do it,
Even educated whales do it.

[/Cole Porter]

I just spent 4 minutes watching banana slug porn … and it involves essentially tentacles :eek:

No word of a lie, I was halfway through eating a banana when I opened this thread.

Mind = blown. :eek:

This is my favorite post, ever. (And I, too, fearlessly, shamlessly love invertebrates. But slugs and all the other slimies: blurgh)

Because it’s there.
.