Why does salt have such harmful effects on slugs?

Question

Why does salt have such harmful effects on slugs? What about salt causes those harmful effects?

Thanks for the help in advance!

Answer 1

Because salt is bad for you in general, especially for slugs, poor dears.

Answer 2

The coarseness of the salt is too much for the slug's soft body.

Answer 3

The dry salt sucks the water from the slugs body.

To move across any surface, the slug lays down a moist slime layer.  When they try to move across it, it rapidly forces them to use their supply of slime and water to do so.  If there's only a little salt they need to cross, they can make it, but more then a few inches (depending on the size of the slug), they dry up convulse and die.  

If salt is poured onto the slug, it doesn't really even get a chance to crawl.

Answer 4

its called chemical reaction and it makes it melt.

Answer 5

The reason why is "osmosis."  Osmosis is the movement of water across a semi-permeable barrier in response to a difference in concentration.  When you put salt on the outside of the slug, it makes the concentration outside much greater, so, as the first responder said, the water is "sucked" out of the slug.  This makes it much more difficult for processes in the slugs body to occur, because there is nothing to move the chemicals around.

Answer 6

Slugs contain a lot of water. When you add water they become dehydrated. Just like drinking salty water makes you even more thirsty.

Answer 7

Kinda like if someone one poured sulfuric acid into your eyes