Flatworms in compost bin

[rary]

I opened my compost bin the other day and some worms at the top as if they were trying to get out, I returned them back into the compost, yesterday when I opened the lid there were several more worms at the lid with some of them looking as if they were just shed skin, which to me would indicate the presence of flatworms, so today I have drenched the contents with an acid solution, about four cups of vinegar into eight lts. of water, I will leave the bin for several days then check to see if there are any worms still present, if not, I will put some in then check again a few days later, if the worms are still there I will add some wood ash which hopefully bring the ph back up, if there are no worms present I will repeat my previous actions with a slight increase of vinegar quantity

I have tried to bring flatworms up with search, unfortunately I get no response when trying to activate search, so if a Mod wishes to move this post that's fine

[Containergardener]

This last year , maybe year before I've been finding flat worms but they tend to be under pots, also often with little black eggs, under anything plastic infact. I have not seen any in my compost bins so far though.

[rary]

Cg if you find any I would suggest that you kill them,as they can wipe out the warm population then hibernate till the worm numbers come back up, as far as I know the only thing that eats them is the stag beetle, when I find them I drop them into a small pot of vinegar but I have read that covering them with salt work as well, should have said, be careful when handling them as they can give you a caustic burn, hence the use of the vinegar

[Snoop Puss]

Hi rary. I searched using Google of all things rather than the Vine search (in this case, I Googled for growfruitandveg flat worm. Bren is a whizz at finding things, me less so. Here are some links, first one to a thread you started back in 2017.

https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...lphate-of-iron

https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...n-my-veg-patch

https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...hes-in-my-pond

https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...lugs-eat-worms

[Snoop Puss]

Agree with rary on all points, CG. Plus, apparently each egg can contain several worms, so they can reproduce quite quickly. Although flatworms won't destroy your plants, they are significant predators, eating earthworms and other insects that birds, hedgehogs and other wildlife depend on. Lots of info and pictures on the web.
Good luck.

[Containergardener]

I drop them in a jar of salted boiling water including the eggs. I use a trowel to.move them .

[Snoop Puss]

Sounds like you know what you're doing, CG.

[Containergardener]

Sounds like you know what you're doing, CG.

Because I asked here what they were
https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...lug-thats-flat

[Snoop Puss]

Thanks, CG. That's a very useful thread. Didn't come up in my search.