Slimed

It is rare that I am in accordance with a journal as learned as The Daily Star but their reporting of foreign cannibal slugs (inadvertently imported on salad leaves from Spain) strikes a chord with me.  I find slugs repulsive at the best of times, whereas snails have a certain charm with their houses on their backs, as well as being easier to pick up and throw into the alleyway at the back of the garden (where they will survive the drop as gravity kicks in or otherwise).  It reminds me of the scare of the New Zealand flatworm dissolving our humble earthworm for its consumption - I don't know how that has panned out but domestic biodiversity is very important.
There was a colony of these super-slugs (who can resist 20 slug pellets before expiring) at the end of my back yard where there was no vegetation yet somehow they survived amongst the bagged detritus (now disposed of).  I concluded that they must have quickly evolved into carnivores, feasting on unfortunate bugs in the area, especially woodlice.  They have a special hood to protect their heads, so when it retracts and their tentacles poke out it is even more disgusting!  Stepping on them is instantaneous but gross so they all got a good dosing of salt which takes down the most powerful of slugs if in sufficient quantity.  I'm not sorry - they had to go.  Get out of my yard!