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New Zealand flatworm

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  • 26-05-2010 6:11pm
    #1
    planetX
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,441 ✭✭✭


    I'm pretty sure I found one underneath a pot. It's the first I've ever seen. Am renting, so only gardening in pots at the moment. I'm going to be moving house soon - what can I do to ensure I don't bring it with me???? Short of washing the soil off my plants... is there anything I could water on them?


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    #2
    looksee
    Registered Users Posts: 28,440 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    Ther is a useful discussion about them here http://www.gardenplansireland.com/forum/about1339.html
    but there does not seem to be any suggestion about killing other than squashing them.


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    #3
    planetX
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,441 ✭✭✭planetX


    thanks for the link. I see it says that the worm can regenerate, I chopped it in two using the edge of the pot. Now I wish I'd obliterated it.
    I'd hate to spread the damn thing, there must be a product I could water all my pots with that would kill it. (pots are on concrete, so it can only be living in them)


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    #4
    oflynno
    Registered Users Posts: 729 ✭✭✭oflynno


    typical, while we are all watching "nothing to declare" on telly,they are exporting their pests to us.

    just wait until i tell my kiwi friend Nigel,i will get him to take them home with him when he goes to visit


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    #5
    planetX
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,441 ✭✭✭planetX


    Mine must have come from the garden centre, who get all their deliveries from Holland - so I'm for blaming the Dutch actually;)


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    #6
    Yorky
    Registered Users Posts: 1,485 ✭✭✭Yorky


    I discovered a New Zealand flatworm in the bottom of a raised bed yesterday when I removed one of the ends. It was also surrounded by small white 'eggs'.

    Photogrpaphs available at http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/ff250/Kilnadrain/New%20Zealand%20flatworm/

    One of the hens didn't discriminate against it..


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    #7
    CJhaughey
    Registered Users Posts: 14,907 ✭✭✭✭CJhaughey


    Use vinegar on them they dissolve.


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    #8
    planetX
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,441 ✭✭✭planetX


    Update - I moved house, took all my surviving plants with me, and today I found a flatworm underneath one. So I've spread them, I can't believe it - we had temps of -14 last winter and all my pots were frozen solid for weeks. I was sure that would finish them off. Have been on google, it's the Australian flatworm, it's smaller and orangy coloured. Feel sick that I've brought them with me.
    Same question as in my first post... is there anything I can water on to the pots to kill everything within. I would happily kill and dispose of every plant and pot, but I don't have bins, and that would only export the pests. What am I going to do with all the compost?
    :mad::mad::mad:


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    #9
    oflynno
    Registered Users Posts: 729 ✭✭✭oflynno


    jeyes fluid should finish them off and the compst and soil will be useable again,if that doesnt work use CHLORAS,which is an agricultural bleach,that will kill everything ,probably any plants too.

    i had murders with fatpigs/tank/woodlouse,and i was told to look into the holes under the pots-the drainage holes,they might be hiding there too


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