Slugs: Here’s another bug-ku (and some thoughts) dedicated to slippery, slimy slugs

Why a poem about slugs?

Back when my daughters were little, we had an invasion of slugs in our garden one summer. Those slimesters ate everything in sight. I felt disgusted, annoyed and fascinated all at the same time.

Then I found this book:

Here’s the first poem:

Swallow a slug

by it’s tail or snout

feel it slide down

Feel it slide out.

from Slugs by David Greenberg

I thought it was hilarious. I read it to my daughters–they liked it as I recall. But I liked it the best. I read that book until it fell apart. I just ordered a new copy from eBay today.

Oh, and here’s the author reading some of his book–Slugs starts after a brief introduction. I don’t know what happens later, because I didn’t watch the whole thing yet.

Happy Poetry Friday!

In honor of Poetry Friday, I’m sharing my bug-ku. This week, Poetry Friday is hosted by The Opposite of Indifference

You can head over to Tabatha’s blog to see what other poetry lovers have to say–it’s always fun. You can share, too, if you dare (ha ha–another poem!)

Here’s my slug-bug-ku

Slippery, slimy,

Slurpy slug, oozing along–

Sack of moving mud.

by Susan Bruck

Spiritual significance of the lowly slug

I figured I’d wander around the web (since I’m not a bug) and see if anyone wrote anything about slug symbolism. Exemplore wrote about slugs.

Here’s a fun fact they share (but don’t try this at home!)–Native Americans used slugs to heal toothaches. They let them slide around in their mouths.

Also, the slug is considered hermaphroditic, so they represent both the Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine. They represent balance and strength–and fertility (they can produce hundreds of offspring with any other slug). They also represent where water meets earth. I didn’t even know that when I wrote my poem, but I guess I intuitively knew and came up with mud.

Slugs are fascinating, but I still don’t want them in my garden

When I had my slug infestation, I did some research and found out that you could kill them with salt and also that they like beer. I hate killing bugs, but I couldn’t stand having my garden destroyed, so I went out at night and sprinkled them with salt. Eventually they got down to reasonable numbers–and I never had a big problem with them again.

Some fun slug facts

Rather than end with the death of slugs, I thought I’d share some fun facts–I found most of these at Slug Off:

• A slug has green blood
• Slug eggs can lay dormant in the soil for years, waiting for the right conditions to hatch
• A slug is basically a muscular foot (gastropod)
• Slugs have tentacles, blowholes and thousands of teeth
• Some slugs can break off part of their bodies to stop predators from eating all of them—they’re called taildropper slugs.
• Slug slime is basically liquid crystal
• Slugs can weigh up to 30 pounds!

OK–I’ll stop. Oh, one more–they don’t hibernate like snails–they stay active as long as the temperature is above 5 degrees. I guess our Chicago sluggers must have slowed down a little this week!

Here’s my bug-ku from last week–on ladybugs.

As always, thanks for stopping by. And happy February!!

xoxo