Dick Warner: Invasive Australian flatworm leaves mixed feelings

When I discovered an Australian flatworm in my garden I had very mixed feelings, says Dick Warner. 

These invasive aliens are predators on earthworms and, after more than 30 years of careful organic gardening, I’m proud of my earthworms and rather protective of them.

However, my initial horror turned to doubt. We’ve heard so many atrocity stories over the years about invasive alien species and the impending disaster they are about to wreak on us but the end of the story is seldom ecological Armageddon. Then I thought of Aesop’s fable about the shepherd boy who cried wolf — it doesn’t have a happy ending.