New Zealand flatworm

vistafinder

I have lots of these in my garden trying to kill as many as possible by trapping them with plastic under stones.

Anybody have any other ways to help keep the numbers down?

Also has any research been done in Ireland on the impact to wildlife. Surely if they get a hold in the countryside it could be devastating not to mention the unseen work the earthworms do for the land.

Very annoying that these are being spread around the countryside.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Absolutely a major threat to the Irish ecosystems it can not be controlled once it is in an area.  All that can really be done is to prevent further spread by inspecting plants that are being moved in order to see that the egg capsules or worms are not present. 

Day Lewin

Just keep killing every one you find. I'm serious.

fryup

how did they get here in the first place? exotic plants?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

fryup wrote: »

how did they get here in the first place? exotic plants?

They are believed to have arrived in potted plants.

recedite

I think a lot of the Irish garden centres are riddled with them.
I got a present of a potted plant around 2 years ago, and left it on a concrete slab for a few days. When I got around to planting it, I picked up the pot and there was a big thick NZ flatworm underneath it. Chopped him up into tiny pieces, and fed them to the goldfish, just to make sure the pieces didn't grow back into numerous mini flatworms. I've not seen any since, so I think I got him in time.

The garden centres have a lot to answer for though, spreading these things around. Who knows what will happen to the earthworms they prey on. I'd imagine the flatworms will spread all over the country eventually, and the density of earthworms will reduce as a result, with a consequent small reduction in productivity of the land.

magicbastarder

recedite wrote: »

The garden centres have a lot to answer for though

or else the suppliers. are there any nematodes which attack them if you know they're present?

recedite

I don't think they have any specific nematode nemesis.

The problem with garden centres is that once they become home to these critters, they allow the flatworms to travel from pot to pot, so even if "clean" plants arrive in, they are likely to pick up the flatworms before long. The garden centre then becomes an infection and distribution centre for flatworms.
Apparently they like a cool moist climate, so Ireland is perfect for them. Potted plants arriving from say, Holland, are more likely to get infected after they arrive in this country.

magicbastarder

hmm. and garden centres are fond of large 'tray' style plant displays which can be watered as a single unit...

Isambard

any help to install a couple of ducks in the garden? I was thinking of doing this to reduce the slug population

recedite

Maybe, but I don't think flatworms would appear on the surface as much as slugs. They would tend to be underground or under stones.

vistafinder

Isambard wrote: »

any help to install a couple of ducks in the garden? I was thinking of doing this to reduce the slug population

Unfortunately I have slightly raised beds without sides for veg set up and the ducks would make a mess of them.
Speaking of slugs I have been doing a night patrol with a head torch in my tunnel with the last few nights for slugs and I am getting the flat worms of a shapes and sizes on the surface while out there they shine out nicely with the torch.

I bet the plastic buried in in the earth is a breeding ground for both.

I am in the middle of sorting out a newly erected tunnel and have been piking and shovelling earth since Monday and I just came across the first earth worm a while ago.

Sad indeed

vistafinder

recedite wrote: »

Who knows what will happen to the earthworms they prey on. I'd imagine the flatworms will spread all over the country eventually, and the density of earthworms will reduce as a result, with a consequent small reduction in productivity of the land.

I think we are hugely undervaluing what the earth worm does. Even tho my garden has always been wet and is heavy clay.
Working with the earth with the last few days there is lots of leaf mould from some nearby trees and its just sitting there and starting to smell.

recedite

The ducks would of course be tucked up asleep even if the flatworms did appear on the surface at night.
But yes, sad that in this case, the flatworms seem to have had a very measurable effect on the earthworm population.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

vistafinder wrote: »

I think we are hugely undervaluing what the earth worm does. Even tho my garden has always been wet and is heavy clay.
Working with the earth with the last few days there is lots of leaf mould from some nearby trees and its just sitting there and starting to smell.

Just on the leaf mould. It's actually early yet for worm action on last autumn's deposit of leaves.

vistafinder

Paxton Whispering Ringleader wrote: »

Just on the leaf mould. It's actually early yet for worm action on last autumn's deposit of leaves.

Interesting when is it they start?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

vistafinder wrote: »

Interesting when is it they start?

Any day now Once temperatures rise and growth starts. Give any compacted and damp leaves a stir with a garden fork if they are smelling.

IOLARMARA

New Zealand wildlife getting back at the world for destroying the Haast's eagle and it's prey the Moa and the unique New Zealand wildlife. Of course I'm joking but yea..

Day Lewin

What about hedgehogs? Can an Irish gráinneog eat New Zealand flatworms? They are nocturnal...foxes eat worms too, which they catch on rainy nights. And Badgers do also. Blackbirds and robins like worms as well I believe?

If they ever come near my garden I'm prepared to launch an all-out strike against them. Trap, catch and slaughter.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Day Lewin wrote: »

What about hedgehogs? Can an Irish gráinneog eat New Zealand flatworms? They are nocturnal...foxes eat worms too, which they catch on rainy nights. And Badgers do also. Blackbirds and robins like worms as well I believe?

If they ever come near my garden I'm prepared to launch an all-out strike against them. Trap, catch and slaughter.

They are unpalatable to many animals and secret an enzyme that makes eating them difficult. And when they come to the surface they do so mostly under objects thrasher than in the open.

baaba maal

Any that I dig up from the veg patch are thrown to the hens- they love them!

magicbastarder

Any native flatworms here? Found one, assume it's an NZ one but don't want to kill it if it's native.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

magicbastarder wrote: »

Any native flatworms here? Found one, assume it's an NZ one but don't want to kill it if it's native.

Not of the earth dwelling kind, only parasitic types. Kill it.

magicbastarder

cheers, found four in total, they were met with the gas torch. i expect to find more, they were in an open compost heap.

DX85

This post has been deleted.

recedite

DX85 wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Yes, a lot in it. A couple of interesting things I picked up on...
They are incredibly efficient eaters, with food conversion efficiency of up to 53% and the ability to go for a year without food.
But very intolerant of heat and dry conditions.
This looks like a useful trick to sanitise pots from a garden centre;

Hot-water treatment could be used to kill A. triangulatus in plant containers (Blackshaw, 1996). Immersion of A. triangulatus in water at 30°C for 20 minutes, killed adults within 24 h. A slightly higher temperature of 34°C and a lower exposure time of 5 minutes resulted in mortality within 1 h

I don't think 30 - 35 C would harm the plant, would it?

vistafinder

A few here last year ended up more or less melting under some paving slabs traps on the days we had good sunshine.

It looked very like what they end up doing to the earth worms actually.

karma maybe

New Home

So, we just need another summer like 1995 and they'd be all gone, wouldn't they?

recedite

Severe cold will kill them too.
According to the report above, in warm weather they go deep down into the soil, curl up, and "aestivate". But the odd hot day in a cool summer might catch them unawares. Irish weather can be very changeable.
Interesting that their main foothold in Europe is Ireland, Scotland and the Orkney islands; the places with dreariest weather!
Never really hot or really cold.

vistafinder

There is a program here about another flatworm in Europe. They mention the one thats here.

Well worth a full view but they start talking about flatworms at 15 min


Saol Rúnda faoi Thalamh tg4 player documentaries



Sorry cant get the link to work

New Home

A few very hot months later... I was wondering if anyone had noticed any difference in the numbers of flatworms they've encountered recently (purely to satisfy my own curiosity).

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

New Home wrote: »

A few very hot months later... I was wondering if anyone had noticed any difference in the numbers of flatworms they've encountered recently (purely to satisfy my own curiosity).

Now that you raise it, I neither saw any nor heard of any this summer so far.

recedite

recedite wrote: »

According to the report above, in warm weather they go deep down into the soil, curl up, and "aestivate"....

The question is, how long would they survive in that state?
Currently the surface layer of the soil is damp, but below about 10 cm its still dry. Presumably its damp again if you go much deeper down.

magicbastarder

https://twitter.com/collieennis/status/1035898503170584576

recedite

magicbastarder wrote: »

https://twitter.com/collieennis/status/1035898503170584576

I'd be burrowing deep too, if I was being hunted by that guy. Pugilistic zoologists are the worst sort!

taxusbaccata

New Home wrote: »

A few very hot months later... I was wondering if anyone had noticed any difference in the numbers of flatworms they've encountered recently (purely to satisfy my own curiosity).

Definately. I am delighted with the cooking they got this summer. I noticed an oven dried flatty during the day and was delighted. I only came across 2 live flats since the summer drought - 1 on my clay paths at night which used to host at least 15 per night at any one time, and 1 hiding in a pot both. Both crushed into fertiliser.



Flatworms cannot burrow like our natives and are reliant on pre existing gaps and holes. Droughts will really set them back. I wonder do frogs eat them? Beetles definitely don't I have observed. The NZ kiwi is its natural predator down south.

New Home

I don't know... maybe hedgehogs and blackbirds do? I don't know if ghey have any toxins that would be bad for them, though. I'd say that nematodes and stuff like bacillus thurgiensis might have an effect on them.

vistafinder

I checked under all the traps around the garden today and not one to be seen.
Haven't checked them with months.

I spread some home made compost on the beds the compost heap is covered over with black plastic and they are always under it no sign there either or through the compost when I was spreading it. And no eggs there.

Maybe they went to Twickenham.

Will keep an eye more regular for a few months see how it goes.

biddyearley

Hens love the buggers.

magicbastarder

Thread resurrection. I just moved the bin storage unit (takes two wheelie bins) to clean behind it as it hasn't moved in probably eight years. I found 20 flatworms under it; and loads of eggs, which are quite distinctive.

I threw the first half dozen or so of the worms into the pond, then thought 'i wonder if they can swim?' but then confirmed with the rest of them that they can't swim in boiling water.

TTTT

My garden and polytunnel is full of the bastards. I chop them and feed them to the hens and ducks. I rarely find earthworms when digging unfortunately ☹