What Happens If You Put Salt On A Slug

Humans can handle salt without the same thing happening because our skin.

Salt essentially draws the water out of their skin an osmosis effect and they die within minutes of dehydration says dr gordon port senior lecturer at newcastle university. If you ve ever poured salt over an unlucky gastropod you ve probably watched aghast as they bubble appear to melt and eventually shrivel up and die. When you pour salt on a snail or slug the water is very rapidly pulled out of the cells of the snail s body by a process called osmosis. When salt is put on them the concentration of salt outside their body is higher than the concentration inside their body water diffuses through semipermeable membranes from a higher concentration.

Subsequently question is why do slugs dissolve in salt. Gardeners know that one way to rid themselves of lettuce eating snails and slugs is to sprinkle them with salt. If enough salt is poured on the snail it will die of dehydration fairly quickly. When you put salt on the skin of a slug osmosis means that the water held inside the slugs body is dragged out because in basic terms there has to be a balance between the amount of water.

The salt causes water to leave their bodies and they shrivel up fast of course i ve also seen postings about shriveling screaming shrieking oozing etc so we may be talking more of wicked witch type of thing here lol. Rather than by a complex chemical reaction salt acts as a snail and slug s kryptonite by dehydrating its slimy exterior. As it dries out the snail s body produces a slimy substance to protect itself. The largest organ in their body is their skin.

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