Why do slugs "melt" when you pour salt on them?

Answer 1

Body contents of slugs are mainly water n protective mucous, thereby they are susceptible to dehydration easily. Applying salt to them will rapidly extract the water contents in their cells (a process named osmosis), thus causing shrinkage of their cells (not melt) and eventually death occurs.

Answer 2

Their skin does not prevent water from passing across it; it acts as a semi-permeable membrane. So if you add salt to a slug you change the osmotic balance across the membrane. Now the slug has lots of salt (solute) on the outside in the water. So effectively that water is less concentrated (it has other
things in it) relative to the water inside the cell. So the water inside the cell rushes out across the membrane to make things equal. This makes it look like the slug is foaming.

Answer 3

Osmosis. The salt causes water to flow out through the slug's skin to dilute the salt and reduce the osmotic pressure.

Answer 4

By putting salt on them, you are creating an imbalance in ions on the surface of their skin (hypertonic on the surface and hypotonic inside the cell).
Cells, to balance this imbalance ion gradient, will release their cell's water to the outer environment (surface of the skin) to balance out the salt concentration in the cells and outside of the cells. The cells will shrivel and pour enough salt, thet cell will wither away.
The movement of substances dissolved water from a high concentration to a lower concentration is called osmosis. Diffusion is for substances in non-water solutions.

Answer 5

They don't melt, they dry up an die rather quickly and painfully too by appearances.

Answer 6

What makes you "melt"?

Answer 7

it sucks the water out of them

Answer 8

because its gong through either osmosis or diffusion i cant remember...