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New Zealand flatworm

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    #32
    ytpe2r5bxkn0c1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭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.


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    #33
    recedite
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,993 ✭✭✭✭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.


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    #34
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,458 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


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


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    #35
    recedite
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,993 ✭✭✭✭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!


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    #36
    taxusbaccata
    Registered Users Posts: 95 ✭✭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.


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    #37
    New Home
    Moderators, Arts Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 76,423 Mod ✭✭✭✭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.


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    #38
    vistafinder
    Registered Users Posts: 619 ✭✭✭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.


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    #39
    biddyearley
    Closed Accounts Posts: 129 ✭✭biddyearley


    Hens love the buggers.


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    #40
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,458 CMod ✭✭✭✭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.



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