To think four inches is very definitely too long...

[Toomuchstuffwillkillme]

for these monstrosities I just found on my lawn. Never even seen an albino one before, so can't bring myself to kill it.... ugh, ugh, uuurgh. WWYD?

There is no such word as predate as you have used

Yes there is.

I am in Wales and my daughter found an albino slug ( Ghost slug?) here about a decade ago.
I like slugs. I don’t have too many in my damp garden, as I have lots of birds and hedgehogs.

@ozymandiusking MitzK There is no such word as predate as you have used. Yes to predate an antiquity may be. I think you mean the would be "prey on other slugs."

No, MitzK is correct:
PREDATE | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary
dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/predate
predate definition: 1. to have existed or happened before another thing: 2. to kill and eat another animal: 3. to have existed or happened before another thing: .

The white slug may, oddly enough, be a giant black slug.

http://molluscs.at/gastropoda/terrestrial.html?/gastropoda/terrestrial/arionidae.html

And apparently there are also white leopard slugs.
I didn't know leopard slugs were predators, cool, I usually have a few lurking in an old toolbox in the garden

I've learned quite a lot from this thread, thanks! (one lot for the OP, one for her slugs)

I am absolutely terrified of slugs but those two chaps look quite perky and cheerful with their antennae out! I put down a slug beer trap as they were scoffing my sunflowers like there was no tomorrow. Some creature dug it up overnight and I cant bring myself to touch it.

They bleed?

Is it feasible to adopt a hedgehog? Mind you, we used to have a pair that lived in our garden when we lived in the back of beyond and they were useless. Complete dereliction of duty on vegetable patch patrol and as for the strawberries . All they ever seemed to do was shag noisily in the leafpile, so when I went out for a fag I felt like I was some kind of voyeur in MY bloody garden

I really, really, reaaaaaaly cannot bear slugs. They make my heart race with fear when I see them. I was hopping along the footpath the other day because they were all out in this god damn wet weather. I have to check the handles on my bins before I touch them. I don't know how people go out and 'pick' them! 😱 I'm going to have slug nightmares now... it's too late for this

Just snip them in half with a pair of scissors. Or use rubber gloves or a long-handled spoon to scoop them into a bucket of heavily salted water.

They are vile and I hate them. And about a million of them live in the base of my water butts.

I would not mind if they stayed outside but the little feckers keep coming my house.

Slugs are getting rarer now which is a worry. I think Sir David needs to do a programme about how much we need them.
Save the slug!

Fuck we

You are evil. Was not expecting to see that!

Kill it. Fuckers cannot stop eating everything I grow.

Get some ducks. They luuurve slugs. Or hens. But ducks eat more of the fuckers are better.
I found one in the washing machine today, when I was taking out a load of laundry. It was dead -- but very clean.

Omg that is amazing! Shocked that anyone would kill a rare animal. Let alone do something as evil as snipping a living being in half.

@ozymandiusking Erm...thanks for that. Very helpful.

Don't waste good beer on them if you're making a trap, by the way. It's just as effective and considerably cheaper to bung a pinch of yeast and a pinch of sugar in some warm water. That way you get your beer and they get to drown whilst simultaneously dealing with unparalleled disappointment at the unfairness of slugular existence.

[NB. Slugular definitely exists as a word. Mainly because I just made it up]

Slugs are getting rarer now Not round here they aren't. Nobody's told the ones in my garden.

Down the field near me on a wet evening, you can find giant 6" orange ones as well as the more normal coloured varieties.

Wow - just come back to this thread to find not only some erudite grammatical discussion overnight but that @ErrolTheDragon has helped identify my slugs (only on MN - knew I could count on you!!) Have some back for the link Errol, it was horrible but fascinating. We don't get giant black slugs ever, after reading your slug-identification info the slug armies here are either Giant Reds or Lusitanian slugs, so Mr/Mrs albino slug must be one of them. (For those concerned for his/her welfare I didn't chop it in half, would probably be kinder than pellets but just NO.) I promise to try @MitziK 's yeast traps, though am not optimistic.
You do indeed learn something new every day on here

When we were visiting Canada we came across a banana slug. Slimy slug but bright yellow!

second beer (old flatish yogurt pots) & recycle coffee - apparently the caffeine is bad for them so either you give them alcohol poisoning or give them overdose of caffeine (have vision of them rushing round garden top speed)

The risk here is they do not die, but contract some life-limiting illness. Maim a parent slug and a litigious slug family could sue for damages and loss of earnings. They lay hundreds of eggs a year and the maintenance bill to compensate their little ones could be quite horrific. To avoid any comeback, either best left alone or throw them into the neighbour's garden.

Damedoom - I hadn't heard that slugs are becoming rarer, I feel a bit guilty now. But can anyone answer whether they do more harm or good? They wreck plants which are a source of sustenance for pollinators, bees, butterflies etc, and the only thing I can think of is that they are food for hedgehogs (of which I have zero evidence there are any living nearby - I wish there were). I know snails are not even native to the british isles as they were brought over with the Roman invasion of Britain as a food source - but are slugs native?

I have containers ready and prepared fir beer traps tonight as there is a slug trail around the new plants I bought yesterday - they are eying them up for a feast!! Now I am doubting if I should do it....

Do they really lay hundreds of eggs a year??? Boak.

They are only becoming rare because they are all relocating to my sodding garden to join their cousins the snails. I don't know why I bother trying to grow anything really

I know snails are not even native to the british isles as they were brought over with the Roman invasion of Britain as a food source

Is that all snails or just the Roman Edible Snail which has a really large white shell?

(Having googled it seems the shells aren't all white. The ones I've found have been so maybe they go white when there's no snail inside)