Backyard Nature: The sex life of slugs

by Marlene Berlin

Here’s something you don’t see every day.

This is the sight that greeted Adam Sieminski early Friday morning. He’d walked outside to get the newspaper (yes some of us still participate in this arcane morning ritual) and found something very strange hanging from his front tree. Intrigued he took a closer look at the two slugs wrapped around each other. He assumed it was some kind of mating ritual.

He sent me a photo. I was transfixed. What in the world were these slugs doing, and what were they hanging from, and what was the blue stuff hanging below? So I asked Adam to hunt for more information. He found this amazing YouTube video featuring Sir David Attenborough.