Does touching a slug or a snail with your bare hands expose you to any dangerous bacteria, viruses, or parasites?
In general, no (I have been doing so for more than 50 years: still here, with no snail related ailment). Normal common sense and Hygiene indicates that you should wash your hands before eating anything or needing to put your hand on/in your mouth. In fact, snail slime or extracts thereof are marketed as an anti-wrinkle cream.I regularly show kids slugs by letting them crawl on my hands so that they can see the colour of the slime and other features.Similarly, they are safe to eat if thoroughly cooked.The snag is that in some tropical/subtropical areas they are a secondary host for the rat lungworm. If a human picks up this parasite, it migrates to the brain/meninges and then dies. This causes a form of meningitis, and, as far as I know, the severity depends on the number of parasites ingested. It can be fatal, but this is rare.In virtually all cases, humans get the disease by eating raw or undercooked snails, or salad contaminated by an infected snail, and not by simple contact. Some idiots have eaten raw slugs or snails as a dare. Don’t do this. I would have no qualms about handling a snail in these areas, but I would be bit hygiene-conscious afterward. Washing the salad plants should do the trick, a good idea anyway.
How can you tell if a Slug is male or female?
Slugs are hermaphrodites, having both female and male reproductive organs. Once a slug has located a mate they encircle each other and sperm is exchanged through their protruding genitalia. A few days later around 30 eggs are laid into a hole in the ground or under the cover of objects such as fallen logs. A commonly seen practice among many slugs is apophallation, when one or both of the slugs chews off the other's penis. The penis of these species is curled like a cork-screw and often becomes entangled in their mate's genitalia in the process of exchanging sperm. When all else fails, apophallation allows the slugs to separate themselves. Once its penis has been removed, a slug is still able to participate in mating subsequently, but only using the female parts of its reproductive system.
I was sitting in the park naked and a slug crawled into my asshole! What should I do?
lmfao.Oh no you poor dear.Well it sounds to me the only choice is to find your nearest garden hose preferably with a power spray nozzle.You may need to lubricate the area.Once you do,insert about 3/4-1 inch inside your rectum and then proceed to turn the water on full blast.Continue running the water until all that washes out is clear water.Its a good idea to do this in a bucket or baby pool so you can look out for the slug.This happened to my husband once as we are both nudists also.And like your slug,his would consume anything he swallowed as well.I am concerned that the slug may be pregnant and birth her baby slugs within your rectal cavity.This is not dangerous but it can be incomfortable and embarassing.Good luck I hope my advice is useful.
Can a slug die from becoming dried out?
I saw a Leopard Slug in my kitchen and I didn't want to touch it, it was very large. I decided to put it outside but I placed a paper towel in front of it for it to wander onto. Once it was on I took it outside and removed the paper towel from under it. I was worried that the paper towel would dry out the slug. I really don't want it to die and I couldn't find anything else to move it with. Could the paper towel I used kill the slug by drying it out?
A metal slug weighing 25.17g is added to a flask with a volume of 59.7mL.?
A metal slug weighing 25.17g is added to a flask with a volume of 59.7mL. It is found that 43.7g of methanol ( d = 0.791g/mL) must be added to the metal to fill the flask. What is the density of the metal? How do I work it out?
Are slugs intelligent?
Here in Germany ~They can get rather large ~(Sluggs) seem to know what time of year to come out of hibernation and that leaving the shell behind makes the stealthy when hunting a meal like sunflowers. Around my garden the rocks are lining the flowerbeds and make good shelter for the nacturnal trail makers. The woods and earth around trees ,seam to be a favorite place to hide while winter goes by .Intelligence is in the eye of the beholder. No matter how I block off our anual sunflower batches the leaves get gobbled up on top of the tallest flowers. Do they have special powers ? Are they observers from another world ? Their camoflage is sometimes colorfull . Do they all come with a shell or are they homeless ? perhapps ~ nudists? Do the French eat them too ? or are they not as tasty without the shell ~ maybe they know ? Is this just a way to remain uneaten, by preditors like the "French Escargo chef "? Do they know their limits? I dont see the ones here on the road, in front of our house ,just crossing the driveway. Climbing walls seems to be a sport and could explain the tall sunflower leaves but in the open garden ,away from walls trees or fences ,they still get the leaves way up high ? Can they fly ?? Staying out of sight and sunlight .seems to be instnct and an art
How can I keep a tardigrade as a pet?
If you have a compound microscope, slides, and coverslips, you might try what we do in my Invertebrate Zoology labs:Get some Vaseline and dip your finger into it. Get a square coverslip. Holding the coverslip only by the edges, carefully scrape all four edges against your Vaseline-coated finger, one at a time, until all four edges have a thin rim of Vaseline. Then put a drop of your tardigrade sample on the slide, and drop the cover slip onto it so that the water is sealed off by the Vaseline.It's not really permanent, but I've seen big protists (Amoeba, Paramecium, etc. stay alive in this "mini-aquarium" for at least a couple of days—one of my students managed to keep Amoeba alive for a week this way. I think tardigrades would last a while as well, although I haven't personally kept tardigrades in this setup for more than a few hours. The Vaseline keeps the water from evaporating, and I think oxygen can diffuse through it. Just don't look at your critters for too long with a bright light, or you might end up baking the poor things.There's another old-school technique that I've never tried, but it might work well here. Get a "well-slide" or "depression slide" with a depression ground into the class. Get a small glass vial and a short piece of thin cotton string. Glue the bottom of the vial to one end of the slide, using epoxy or something that'll stick to glass. Fill the vial with spring water, put one end of the string into the vial, and put the other end in the depression. Now put a drop of your tardigrade-containing sample in the depression, and add a cover slip. The idea is that the string will wick water from the vial under the cover slip, constantly replacing whatever is lost by evaporation. You'll have to refill the vial when it gets low, but you could probably keep a tardigrade alive for several days this way.Good luck!
Is it legal to keep an armadillo as a pet?
Aside from Nicholas Padlo’s very good legal discussion, there is this.Under the wrong circumstances they can become aggressive, or succumb to the same boredom or health problems that afflict many captive animals.They are nocturnal, and would be sleeping when you are awake. At night, they will wake up and forage. If kept inside, this means they will wander around your home, bumping into (and knocking over!) things, and generally making noise while you are trying to sleep.Armadillos smell like skunk spray.And most vets will refuse to treat them for fear of contracting leprosy.