Topic: ID Please Is this a Leach Or Flat worm

[GRACELAND]

Was clearing my green house moving pots etc trays from under staging and on Gravel in damp area found one of theses

Is it a New Zealand Flat worm

Or I think it could be a Leach ?

















over to the experts  ;)

[Bugloss2009]

it's a flatworm, i think. We see them occasionally, especially after rain. They live under our flagstones

[Unwashed]

Leech, defo.  I had them on my plot in Southend, and in Newbury.  Look at the suckers on each end, they have a three-part mouth.

[lincsyokel2]

LEECH


ORANGE GARDEN FLATWORM

[Duke Ellington]

I feel queasy :-X

[calendula]

what fantastic pics - they are great for eating snails you should find a mate for it  ;D

[Robert_Brenchley]

That's a horseleech. Don't worry, it won't suck your blood. I used to find them on the watermeadows round Oxford when I was a kid.

[GRACELAND]

 :)

So its ok  won,t cause any harm ???

[montbrayon]

It looks disgusting, is this one of the "good guys"?  :-\

[lincsyokel2]

It looks disgusting, is this one of the "good guys"?  :-\

Bear Grylls would eat one, no problemo.

[Emagggie]

Apparently leeches are used in East Grinstead hospital  :o Would they be a different variety?

[Vinlander]

I found big unpatterned red/brown leeches very like this last year when the water table rose to the surface.

I was told they were vegetarian and usually lived on the edge of the water table - which is normally a metre down on my plot.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Apparently leeches are used in East Grinstead hospital  :o Would they be a different variety?

That would be the medicinal leech, it's bigger, feeds on vertebrates when it gets the chance, and will suck your blood like Dracula.

[vicki.m]

I'd never garden again if I found something like that - yuk.

I have a hard time coping with worms and I know they are the good guys.

[Robert_Brenchley]

If you get leeches you know you're badly in need of drainage!

[lincsyokel2]

If you get leeches you know you're badly in need of drainage!

What, you personally, or the plot ?

[saddad]

If you get leeches you know you're badly in need of drainage!

So grow Celeriac...  ;D

[1066]

If you get leeches you know you're badly in need of drainage!

So grow Celeriac...  ;D

 ;D toads, frogs, newts and slow worms, but no leeches spotted so far!!

[Robert_Brenchley]

Like I say, I used to find leeches on the watermeadows. There's a massive one just outside Oxford called Port Meadow. I could walk along the riverbank there, turn over logs as I went, and find dozens, along with plenty of frogs, which like grassland. You can imagine how well drained a watermeadow is! Of course, if you want a plot that's flooded half the year and waterlogged the rest of the time...

[chriscross1966]

Port Meadow is inside Oxford.... nearly a third of Oxford's surface area is Port Meadow... it's huge, and like a giant blind-spot in how people think of the city stretching from Binsey to Wolvercote......