Slugs are the common name for gastropod molluscs of the family Limacidae, soft-bodied creatures with long fleshy bodies in which the shell is either vestigial or absent altogether. They live in damp terrestrial habitats worldwide and are familiar plant-eating pests, rasping holes in leaves, stems, and fruits and leaving silvery mucus trails behind them. In food production they matter as field and storage pests rather than direct human pathogens: feeding damage downgrades produce quality, opens the way for rot, and can lead to rejection at grading. Control relies on crop hygiene, drainage, trapping, and approved molluscicides where regulations permit their use.