Subject: please identify crawling wormy thing

From: [email-masked] (Aaron Akman)
Date: 31 Mar 1995 17:48:01 GMT

I noticed a worm-like creature in my vegetable garden.  It didn't look
exactly like a worm and I'm curious as to what it is and whether it's
good in my vegetable garden or bad.  Here's the description:

	2-3 inches long, tan colored, cross-section not perfectly
	round like an earthworm but slightly flattened instead,
	distinctive dark brown line running all along its body from
	tip-to-tip, curled up at about the surface, seen in the AM.

If you know what this was, please send me email.

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From: [email-masked] (John Tusciuk)
Date: 31 Mar 1995 17:02:21 -0500

Aaron Akman ([email-masked]) wrote:

: I noticed a worm-like creature in my vegetable garden.  It didn't look
: exactly like a worm and I'm curious as to what it is and whether it's
: good in my vegetable garden or bad.  Here's the description:

: 	2-3 inches long, tan colored, cross-section not perfectly
: 	round like an earthworm but slightly flattened instead,
: 	distinctive dark brown line running all along its body from
: 	tip-to-tip, curled up at about the surface, seen in the AM.

If it's got small, caterpillar like legs then it sounds like a
cutworm.  If this sounds like it, you might want to have it positively
identified by someone you can show it to.  If they are cutworms (or if
you want to take precautions just in case), then you need to protect
your plants with "collars."  Use about any piece of cardboard
(subscription cards from magazines work well).  Make the card into a
ring and stick it into the ground around your plants about 2" down
leaving about the same amount above ground.  Cutworms eat stems off at
about ground level causing otherwise healthy plants to topple with an
apparently broken stem.  There should be pictures in these in just
about any garden pest book.

John Tusciuk
[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Hilary Dyer)
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 1995 07:35:47 +0000

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] "John Tusciuk" writes:

> cutworm.  

Over in the UK we are now getting concerned about an influx of flat worms
which appear to answer your description.  As I understand it, they will not
harm your plants but *will* harm your erathworms - they kill them.  These
worms have been imported to us from Australia and New Zealnad and are spreading
fairly rapidly here.  It sounds like you could do with an expert to check it
for you. 

Sorry to be so late to post this, I'm having trouble with getting news at the 
moment.  Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Hilary
-- 
Hilary Dyer
Internet: [email-masked]

Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last
fish been caught will we realise that we cannot eat money.
(aboriginal American proverb)

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From: [email-masked] (Bruce A. Moon)
Date: 11 Apr 1995 08:31:45 -0700

Sounds like a millipede. I've usually run into them in dark sheds 
and garages. Harmless most of the time, they sometimes attack plants 
growing in damp places. They are usually on the composting/decaying team.
Bruce Moon
Rio Linda, CA

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From: [email-masked] (Bruce A. Moon)
Date: 11 Apr 1995 08:31:45 -0700

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From: [email-masked] (Charles Galt)
Date: 19 Apr 1995 05:56:33 GMT

: > Aaron Akman ([email-masked]) wrote:
: > : I noticed a worm-like creature in my vegetable garden.  It didn't look
: > : exactly like a worm and I'm curious as to what it is and whether it's
: > : good in my vegetable garden or bad.  Here's the description:
: > 
: > :       2-3 inches long, tan colored, cross-section not perfectly
: > :       round like an earthworm but slightly flattened instead,
: > :       distinctive dark brown line running all along its body from
: > :       tip-to-tip, curled up at about the surface, seen in the AM.
: Over in the UK we are now getting concerned about an influx of flat worms
: which appear to answer your description.  As I understand it, they will not
: harm your plants but *will* harm your erathworms - they kill them.  These
: worms have been imported to us from Australia and New Zealnad and are spreading
: fairly rapidly here.  It sounds like you could do with an expert to check it
: for you. 

Does it have a little bi-lobed or broad head??? and very flat and glides 
along on moist surfaces??? Sounds then like Bipalium, a not-uncommon 
flatworm in North american gardens, I don't know that it's harmful to 
anything, but flatworms are carnivorous as a rule, but I have plenty of 
earthworms and a few Bipalium... Relative of "Planaria" the little 
crosseyed flatworm of regeneration fame...
chuck

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