Monday 4 June 2007

unwelcome visitors



Yuck, I've got Australian Flatworms (Australoplana Sanguinea) in my garden. I found the first two early this spring, but apparently they've been reported from this post code several times before.

These ugly, non indigenous little horrors prey on earthworms. They've no natural predators and are covered in an irritant slime, so as far as I can tell have no redeeming features.

The only way to control numbers is to trap and kill them. They like to hide under heavy plastic things in the day time so look under planters, bags of compost or water butts. You can read all about them and their New Zealand cousins here.

No comments:

Blog Widget by LinkWithin