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Allotment Stuff => The Basics => Topic started by: GRACELAND on March 19, 2011, 13:22:42

Title: ID Please Is this a Leach Or Flat worm
Post by: GRACELAND on March 19, 2011, 13:22:42: 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 ?

(http://i691.photobucket.com/albums/vv277/GRACELAND_01/P1150358.jpg)

(http://i691.photobucket.com/albums/vv277/GRACELAND_01/P1150357.jpg)

(http://i691.photobucket.com/albums/vv277/GRACELAND_01/P1150356.jpg)

(http://i691.photobucket.com/albums/vv277/GRACELAND_01/P1150355.jpg)

(http://i691.photobucket.com/albums/vv277/GRACELAND_01/P1150353.jpg)
(http://i691.photobucket.com/albums/vv277/GRACELAND_01/P1150359.jpg)

(http://i691.photobucket.com/albums/vv277/GRACELAND_01/P1150361.jpg)

over to the experts ;)
Title: Re: ID Please Is this a Leach Or Flat worm
Post by: Bugloss2009 on March 19, 2011, 13:29:31: it's a flatworm, i think. We see them occasionally, especially after rain. They live under our flagstones
Title: Re: ID Please Is this a Leach Or Flat worm
Post by: Unwashed on March 19, 2011, 13:32:44: 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.
Title: Re: ID Please Is this a Leach Or Flat worm
Post by: lincsyokel2 on March 19, 2011, 14:05:42: LEECH
(http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQB4xer3mAZ0QV2dxmG9Rm6ivhgT7Fz4JNyzRepY6RpWQT4WkdZlA)

ORANGE GARDEN FLATWORM
(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/21/34168979_67bf42be61_o.jpg)
Title: Re: ID Please Is this a Leach Or Flat worm
Post by: Duke Ellington on March 19, 2011, 14:11:25: I feel queasy :-X
Title: Re: ID Please Is this a Leach Or Flat worm
Post by: calendula on March 19, 2011, 14:38:38: what fantastic pics - they are great for eating snails you should find a mate for it ;D
Title: Re: ID Please Is this a Leach Or Flat worm
Post by: Robert_Brenchley on March 19, 2011, 15:21:36: 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.
Title: Re: ID Please Is this a Leach Or Flat worm
Post by: GRACELAND on March 19, 2011, 16:59:33: :)

So its ok won,t cause any harm ???
Title: Re: ID Please Is this a Leach Or Flat worm
Post by: montbrayon on March 19, 2011, 19:52:31: It looks disgusting, is this one of the "good guys"? :-\
Title: Re: ID Please Is this a Leach Or Flat worm
Post by: lincsyokel2 on March 19, 2011, 21:45:58: Quote from: montbrayon on March 19, 2011, 19:52:31
It looks disgusting, is this one of the "good guys"? :-\

Bear Grylls would eat one, no problemo.

(http://4funz.com/Funny-Pictures/random/img-bear-grylls-787)
Title: Re: ID Please Is this a Leach Or Flat worm
Post by: Emagggie on March 19, 2011, 22:39:35: Apparently leeches are used in East Grinstead hospital :o Would they be a different variety?
Title: Re: ID Please Is this a Leach Or Flat worm
Post by: Vinlander on March 20, 2011, 00:17:26: 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.
Title: Re: ID Please Is this a Leach Or Flat worm
Post by: Robert_Brenchley on March 20, 2011, 13:15:23: Quote from: Emagggie on March 19, 2011, 22:39:35
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.
Title: Re: ID Please Is this a Leach Or Flat worm
Post by: vicki.m on March 20, 2011, 19:05:12: 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.
Title: Re: ID Please Is this a Leach Or Flat worm
Post by: Robert_Brenchley on March 20, 2011, 19:12:20: If you get leeches you know you're badly in need of drainage!
Title: Re: ID Please Is this a Leach Or Flat worm
Post by: lincsyokel2 on March 22, 2011, 10:23:11: Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on March 20, 2011, 19:12:20
If you get leeches you know you're badly in need of drainage!

What, you personally, or the plot ?
Title: Re: ID Please Is this a Leach Or Flat worm
Post by: saddad on March 22, 2011, 12:40:22: Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on March 20, 2011, 19:12:20
If you get leeches you know you're badly in need of drainage!
So grow Celeriac... ;D
Title: Re: ID Please Is this a Leach Or Flat worm
Post by: 1066 on March 22, 2011, 13:05:49: Quote from: saddad on March 22, 2011, 12:40:22
Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on March 20, 2011, 19:12:20
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!!
Title: Re: ID Please Is this a Leach Or Flat worm
Post by: Robert_Brenchley on March 22, 2011, 18:58:50: 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...
Title: Re: ID Please Is this a Leach Or Flat worm
Post by: chriscross1966 on March 23, 2011, 23:01:40: 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......
Title: Re: ID Please Is this a Leach Or Flat worm
Post by: Robert_Brenchley on March 24, 2011, 11:41:39: Perceptions have changed a bit since I was a kid - or maybe the city boundaries have expanded. It sounds as though everything within the ring road is now part of Oxford.