N Z Flatworms

[frogesque]

'Orrible little buggers!

Anyone got any suggestions re: getting rid of them? At the moment I'm trapping them under black polythene and bits of paving slab but I fear they are now endemic in the garden. Any chemicals that would do the trick are apparently fatal to native earthworms and other fauna - unless you know different.

It's an established old large walled garden I work in that has been a little neglected. The local eartworm population seems to be healthy and there may be a balance in the garden so I'm not panicking at this stage. I did find a toad last autumm which was carefully moved from an area I was clearing - I'm wondering if they are predators (I would like to encourage them, and frogs, anyway).

In particular I don't want to stop composting. It's the only sensible way of disposing of garden refuse especially with the volume I have to contend with but that area seems to be the worst infected. Any compost gets passed through a 10mm sieve which will effectively mangle any adults but the eggs can still get through so I bag it up then wait a few weeks before re-sieving. Nice compost but it's hard graft!

Somewhat related topic, anyone tried soil pasturising with a microwave?

Edited July 1, 2005 by frogesque

[Roo]

Contact your local hedgehog rescue centre and adopt a hedgehog or two?...my parents did this and the number of slugs, snails, etc that they had was brought into balance....

Edited July 1, 2005 by Roo

[Osbourne One-Nil]

I've used nematodes to control slugs before, with great results. Is there anything like that available for flat worms?