Spoiler Alert - Mold-eating bug!
After a week of rain, I was taking out the trash when I saw a translucent weird-looking bug with a red geometric design on its back that hardly looked real.
I thought, 'What in the world?'
I went immediately into survival mode and quickly ran back inside the house - still carrying trash.
I asked my son-in-law to go out and take a look at the bug.
Returning inside, he asked, "How'd you like that slug?"
Piqued with curiosity, I went back out to take another look after getting up the nerve.
Snapping a picture, I grabbed my computer and looked it up on Google Images.
The critter was a typical Sydney garden-variety slug called the red triangle slug - common in eastern Australia.
I thought, 'Now that's a slug of a different color!'
It's also known as a leaf-vein slug because the thin lines on its back resemble a leaf.
Thankfully, it doesn't bite and is not poisonous, but some carry parasites.
Not sure how you know which ones.
It has two tentacles, a red border, and quite a dramatic hole in the center of the triangle, which is its yucky-looking breathing spore.
It reminded me of that old expression about putting lipstick on a pig.
One day unexpectedly, I came across another land slug with a grey body and orange triangle, blending in with the wet cement wall.
That's when I found out that these critters vary in color and can be white, grey, beige, red, pink, or olive green.
I decided to measure it to get a sense of its size.
This one was probably young at three inches since they can grow to be eleven.
Like most slugs, it moved slowly, making it an easy target to photograph.
But for its predators, they are a challenge to catch.
When threatened, it secretes a sticky defense mucus as powerful as super glue that can stick an animal, as large as a frog, to a surface for hours - giving the slug time to crawl away slowly.
However, it's a mystery how the slug itself doesn't get stuck in its glue.
Birds find it difficult to grab hold of them because they are slimy.
You've got to love nature!
Red triangle slugs are nocturnal and keep out of sight during the day, which may be why I hadn't seen one before.
While they are not rare in Sydney, they can be hard to find if searching for one.
Many unusual critters found in the back garden come from the remnant bushland close to the house called Echo Point Park, where there are many places for them to hide during the day, like under leaf debris, broken branches, and aggregate stones.
They are known to graze on lichen and algae from the Eucalyptus trees and leave recognizable trails where they have cleared paths.
After a heavy rain, they crawl up stone walls and over rocks looking for lichen or mosses.
They also eat mushrooms and household mold.
So don't pull out the salt shaker if you find this critter inside the house.
Instead, please put it in your bathroom, where it will remove all the mold from your tile, floor, cracks, shower, and shower curtains!
They're supposedly better than the harsh cleaners you find in big box hardware stores and biologically friendly to boot!
Now that's what I'm talking about!
However, keep in mind that they may want a house tour after removing bathroom mold.
If you're like me, you probably don't like slimy slow-crawling creatures like slugs, worms, or leeches, but you have to admit, the red triangle slug is quite a spectacle!
Lipstick on a slug . . .
Mucus slime, stronger than superglue . . .
Slugs that clean mold. . .
Sydney is NOT Kansas!
