Originally published at: Watch this cute slug pass through a clear ballpoint pen tube | Boing Boing
…
Did that experiment in like 3 - 4 grade elementary school, same results as I remember.
This is just me squeezing into my pre-pandemic jeans. But I wasn’t dumb enough to video it!
It’s for the hugs!
I wonder how it was enticed to go through the tube, rather than go around it?
Tube inner wall possibly smeared with slug pheromones…?
I wonder what would have happened if the other end was closed. Can slugs back up?
Well, it might be cute & all, but it’s still no replacement for a Norwegian Blue.
I’ll bet it doesn’t even talk!
I had a little fun and sped the player up to 2X the speed.
Per BBC/Science Focus… no.
Looks like they form a pretty air-tight seal. So the pressure at the closed end would increase as the slug goes further in. I wonder what the pressure would be where it would stop? And, yeah, can they back out?
“cute slug”?
Cute? CUTE?? CUTE???
No. Slugs are spawn of the devil and are intent on eating all my seedlings and veggie plants.
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A “CUTE” SLUG!
Land slugs can’t back up. If the end was closed off, the slug would probably die if it somehow managed to enter far enough into the tube and got its breathing hole stopped up by the tube inner wall. I have no idea how strong slugs are, but I’m guessing (at least for the little boi in question) that it doesn’t have the strength to compress the tube’s trapped air enough to progress to a point where its breathing hole gets stopped up. Knowing this slugs’s pushing force would get us the pressure inside the tube, but what the heck would that force be?
And would they make little beeping sounds if they could?
You’re living your best life!
Even if it just narrowed, seems like it would be a death sentence, then.
Why, were you planning on treating the plants any differently?
Yes - I was planning to prick out the seedlings and let them and the already pricked-out veggie plants grow to maturity, and let some of them set seed. Once the plants are established or mature, slugs do far less damage and can be tolerated.
If the slugs want tender young seedling they can effing well plant their own seeds and tend to them carefully.