Banana Slugs are kid magnets. The fact that they're bright yellow sort of makes them pop out from their surroundings (unless they're in amongst fallen Bay Laurel leaves) and their glacial pace makes them easy to catch. Nobody ever has to chase a slug. All you have to do is lean down and pick it up.

As a child, I picked up pretty much every Banana Slug I came across. I didn't care that my mom or dad had to spend a half an hour getting the slime off my hands each time I picked one up, and I didn't even stop to think about what effect my enthusiastic handling might have on the slugs.

They were just so cool and yellow.

As an adult, I leave them be, except to occasionally photograph them. I did once lick one, just to see if the mild poison in their slime would indeed numb my lips and tongue like I'd heard it would. It did, and not being able to properly feel my lips and tongue was kind of irritating for a couple of days.

I don't let kids touch them either. Apparently, the oils in human skin are bad for the slugs. Not to mention bacteria and whatnot.

At camp, we sing song about them, and an anatomically incorrect cartoon version of them graces our T-shirts. You'd figure a science camp would remember to make sure that the slugs' eyes were actually at the ends of the eye-stalks where they belong. But no - they're on the body of the slug, with the stalks reduced to some sort of yellow antennae. Go figure.