Sunday, August 25, 2013
Slugs!
Brief heavy rain this morning, about 1/10 inch. Refreshing. Sun and nice north wind afterwards.
So: Is it slug time or not?
It's slug time!
One monster in the Safeway parking lot was 200 feet from the nearest soil, and the rain had stopped about an hour before I saw the monster. 200ft/hr sounds fast, but it's actually not.... Human walking speed is 4 miles per hour = 20,000 feet per hour. Slug speed then = 1% of human walking speed. Not so fast.
Today's weather combination helps to refine my slug behavior theory. Clearly they don't come out when it hasn't rained. They prefer to stay deep when the top layer is hot and dry. When heavy rain is followed by sunny and dry air, they come out. But when heavy rain is followed by cool wet air, they don't come out. So their tropism must be more like "I want warmth" than "I hate wetness."
It's slug time!
One monster in the Safeway parking lot was 200 feet from the nearest soil, and the rain had stopped about an hour before I saw the monster. 200ft/hr sounds fast, but it's actually not.... Human walking speed is 4 miles per hour = 20,000 feet per hour. Slug speed then = 1% of human walking speed. Not so fast.
Today's weather combination helps to refine my slug behavior theory. Clearly they don't come out when it hasn't rained. They prefer to stay deep when the top layer is hot and dry. When heavy rain is followed by sunny and dry air, they come out. But when heavy rain is followed by cool wet air, they don't come out. So their tropism must be more like "I want warmth" than "I hate wetness."Labels: Danbo
¶ 9:27 AM
