What Happens When You Put Salt On A Slug

Gardeners know that one way to rid themselves of lettuce eating snails and slugs is to sprinkle them with salt.

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. However pouring salt on a slug or snail doesn t actually melt them though it may appear that way. The life story of a slug. I would compare pouring salt on a slug as being in some ways similar to a banned abortion method where salt was injected into the womb and a fetus would die from lung damage from inhalation and having it s skin burned off by the salt.

Salt kills slugs and snails pretty rapidly. Rather than by a complex chemical reaction salt acts as a snail and slug s kryptonite by dehydrating its slimy exterior. However the slugs don t scream for the simple reason that they don t have any vocal apparatus. 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.

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. 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.