Storms In Lubbock Lead To Invasion Of Thunderslugs

This is a new one on me.

Tuesday nights storms in Lubbock were certainly something else. They certainly weren't as bad as our friends in Tahoka and Levelland got it, but they made their presence known. A lot of branches were lost, there was hail damage and so much more.

As long as no damage is suffered, storms around here can actually be a bit thrilling, but can turn to frightening pretty quickly. I have seen about four decades worth of storms here, including some truly nasty flash flooding, but I never saw the result that I saw this morning.

As if from a a sci-fi movie, the storm left me with an invasion of slugs on my house, porch and sidewalk. I've never seen them just suddenly appear, full-sized, after a storm like this. Maybe some amateur or real entomologists can share a little light on this topic, but I have personally never seen this before.

The creatures were leaving slime trails all over the place (sorry, they did not photograph well) and a number of them were actually crawling up the side of the house as if they were trying to escape the low-level flooding that happens on my porch. It was certainly creepy.

So what are these things? Well, they are no doubt slugs, and I have seen slugs before, I have just never seen them react this way or so many at a time. I have decided to call them "Thunder-slugs" due to the timing of their arrival, but I guess "Storm-slugs" might work. Also, just to turn this into a learning experience, I was today years old when I found out that snails are mollusks, and technically in the same family as clams and octopuses.