Field Guide to the Slug
   David George Gordon
  1995 Sasquatch Books, Seattle WA USA
   ISBN: 1570610118


Explore the secret world of slugs & their kin in forests, fields & gardens from Southeast Alaska to California. These little creatures, which we love to hate, are actually miniature marvels of adaptation that play an essential role in nature's grand scheme.

You are going to learn a whole new vocabulary when you begin to study this thin book sponsored by The Western Society of Malacologists. Wonderful words we wouldn't normally use or want to unless you let David George Gordon work his magic on you & you slink after these much-maligned garbage collectors.

Slugs can't help being slimey - that's the way they get around & also, by the way, how some of them... um... eh...mate? You've got to realize that gender gets a bit muddled with this phylum. Well, it's muddled for all of us, not for them, even if they do tend to gobble each other up now & again.

How else are you going to approach the subject of slugs if you're not going to get humorous? David George Gordon gets quite comedic & teaches us all the better about a class of creatures that have always gotten bad press from us humans until we have to take a dump in the woods & then, boy oh boy, do we ever sing their praises!

Living as I do on the hem of a rainforest region there are more slugs than, as my beloved is wont to mutter: "you can shake a stick at." Slugs are not bothered by sticks or stones. If we humans are energetic enough to plant succulent vegetables then slugs, being here first, consider themselves invited. The trick is to plant masses & masses of seeds & buy into a Colorado copper mine.

Do check out my Ode to Dull Sluggery inspired by this little book which I love & encourage anyone who feels plagued by slugs or anyone who hates listening to gardeners whine about slugs to pick up some copies & liberally distribute them, then wait & see what happens!

Other titles in the Sasquatch Field Guide series:
The Audubon Society Field Guide to the Bald Eagle
The Oceanic Society Field Guide to the Gray Whale
American Cetacean Society Field Guide to the Orca
International Society of Cryptozoology Field Guide to the Sasquatch
Great Bear Foundation Field Guide to the Grizzly Bear
Adopt-a-Stream Foundation Field Guide to the Pacific Salmon
Oceanic Society Expeditions/Earthtrust Field Guide to the Humpback Whale
(07/16/00)

Rebecca