Eye On Nature

I have found quite a number of very pale red-brown worms recently in my vegetable patch; five tonight while hunting slugs by torchlight. They are much thinner than earthworms, tapering to a point at the front end, flat in cross-section rather than round, even paler underneath, between two and four inches long. They move by contracting and extending like earthworms. One I found next to an earthworm carcass. Are these the dreaded New Zealand flatworms - or are there other flat worms? Are they a threat and, if so, is there anything I can do about them?

Nigel Wood, Annamoe, Co.Wicklow

Your description doesn't seem to match New Zealand flatworms which are dark purple-brown on the upper side and dirty-yellow flecked with brown on the underside. They are about 10mm wide and up to 60mm long when inactive, but can be up to 300 mm when moving. When resting they are usually coiled and covered with mucus which can irritate the skin if they are handled. There are native flatworms which are not a threat, but your "worm" could have been a leech if it consumed an earthworm.

Why is it that spiders always seem to find themselves stranded in the bath or basin. Why don't they work out a system of letting themselves down with a safety thread up which they can clamber after having a drink?

P Berridge, Adamstown, Co Wexford.

When spiders drop from a height they extrude a strand of silk up which they can clamber to safety, eating the thread as they go. But the spiders that end up in baths and basins may have walked there from behind the fitting and lost their footing.

Edited by Michael Viney, who welcomes observations sent to him at Thallabawn, Carrowniskey PO, Westport, Co Mayo. e-mail: viney@anu.ie. Observations sent by e-mail should be accompanied by postal address as location is sometimes important to identification or behaviour.