colchicum leaves for dinner
DaveKarn@aol.com (Wed, 08 Jun 2005 22:55:09 PDT)

In a message dated 6/8/05 5:14:11 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
jimmckenney@starpower.net writes:

Jim, et al ~

I'll do your slug story one better! I have dug daffodil bulbs to find them
hollowed out and one of the huge black slugs curled up inside. The most
remarkable are those bulbs where the slug/s have started eating from the bottom of
the bulb. They devour the bulb in such a way that there remains only a small
section of the basal plate and a column of the bulb tissue supporting the
remaining section of the bulb above, rather like a mushroom! The first time I saw
this, it was difficult to believe. This is another one of those instances
where "nothing eats daffodil bulbs, they're poisonous" mantra is spread about. I
doubt, however, that consuming these particular bulbs will results in
tetraploid forms . . .

The big slugs out here on the Left Coast are big -- and when I say big, they
can be seven to nine inches long when moving along the ground. They look like
a small, slow snake. There is one, a native, that is bright yellow and known
as the banana slug! It is an inhabitant of the Coastal rain forests.

Dave Karnstedt
Silverton, Oregon