Allotments 4 All

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  ;)

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

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.

LEECH


ORANGE GARDEN FLATWORM

I feel queasy :-X

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

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.

 :)

So its ok  won,t cause any harm ???

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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 ?

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

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!!

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...

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......