Northern invaders

In a recent episode (Countryfile, November 27) you talked about the humble earthworm. It’s important to mention that in the north of the country we have the flatworm that eats our earthworm. It would be helpful if you could tell people how to kill these flatworms in order to save our native earthworm Tricia Cook, Langley Park, Durham Invertebrate expert Richard Jones replies: Several potentially invasive species have been identified in the UK, including the New Zealand flatworm (above), and the Australian flatworm. Sadly there is no way of targeting alien flatworms in the soil without impinging on our native fauna. The only option is to identify the invasive culprits and squish ’em. You can find printable identification factsheets at nonnativespecies.org