Mild winters have yielded large numbers of voracious slugs in farm fields
By Bonnie Williamson and Tim Cook, Spirit of Jefferson
KABLETOWN, W.Va. — For the past few weeks many people have found slimy creatures on their front steps that leave a slick, gooey trail behind them. Those are slugs, or terrestrial gastropod molluscs, often referred to as snails without shells (or with very small or hidden shells).
But slugs go far beyond being just ugly pests. They also do billions of dollars of damage to farmers’ crops nationwide, and this year has seen some of the worst slug devastations for some farmers in Jefferson County.
Due to this year’s infestation, Todd Hough, a fourth-generation farmer in Kabletown, has had to replant one-third of his 1,300 acres of corn and soybean crops.
Read more: https://www.spiritofjefferson.com/news/article_ed1ab616-2e52-11ef-9799-1f3621c3d513.html
