Re: New Zealand flatworm -gosh, someone else has them?

Grdnpeach@aol.com wrote:
> 
> Hi Maura,
> 
> In a message dated 2/11/0 1:28:28 AM, theclan@cruzio.com writes:
> 
> << They appeared in my garden suddenly about 4 years ago, and since they were
> foreign to me, I posted a query on this news group and someone (from England -
> Tristan, perhaps?) pointed me (I spent hours in the library pouring over
> books) towards identifying them (small 1/2 to 1 inch long, shiny, black,
> skinny -rather
> like a small, black skinny slug!) >>
> 
> Ewww!  Is that what they are?  My yard has them, too.  At first , I thought
> they were some type of earthworm.  Will SLUGGO control them?  Also, I had
> read, somewhere,  that Sluggo kills earthworms.  I hope that's not true.
> 
> Nancy
> Just a stone's throw from you, in Los Altos, CA.

To anybody in the USA who thinks they may have this pest :-

I strongly recommend you contact without delay someone with the
necessary know-how to identify them positively such as an Advisory
officer of your Agricultural Department. If they are really present
Authority may want to do something urgent and drastic about it. There is
no point in trying any control like slug bait, as they seem to be immune
to all known remedies which can be safely applied. Unfortunately they
are worms not molluscs and it has so far proved impossible to find
anything which would kill them and not as well be lethal to earthworms.

As far as I know, outside NZ the only area where they have been
officially identified as present is in Britain and Ireland. Their spread
to the American continent could be a disaster for growers in the cooler
areas (they cannot apparently cope with hot conditions, which has
limited their spread even to the south of Britain)

Moira
-- 
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata, New Zealand. (on the "Ring of Fire" in the SW Pacific).
Lat. 41:16S Long. 174:58E. Climate: Mediterranean/Temperate
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