Australian flatworm on left of picture

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Earthworm predators in the UK

Many vertebrate and invertebrate animals consume earthworms. Their inclusion in a diet will depend on many reasons such as : availability, opportunism, season, life cycle of predator and food shortages of their preferred foods.

Here is a UK wildlife selection…..there are many more species!

Australian Flatworm (Photographed with brandling)           Badgers

Birds: robins, blackbirds, song thrushes, starlings, woodcocks, curlews, gulls, crows

Carabid beetles e.g. black ground beetle               Centipedes

Foxes               Frogs               Grass snake              Hedgehogs            Leeches ( e.g. Trocheta subvirudis)

Lizards            Mice                 Minks                         Moles                      Newts

New Zealand Flatworm         Pigs                            Pine Martins          Red foxes

Shrews            Slow worm        Smooth snake        Staphylind sp. (rove beetles)

Stoats              Toads                 Wild boar                  Wood ants (unless they live in the wood ants nest!)

and…..SLUGS!!!! Carnivorous slugs!!    Believe it or not, there are at least 3 specimens of slugs that feast on earthworms here in Britain! They belong to the Testacella family of slugs……

Spider eating worm!!!!

A most unusual search of the scientific literature found a species of spider, in Switzerland feeding on an earthworm, with a photograph of it trying to pull the worm on to its web!

See it for yourself and download……  Spiders feeding on earthworms

Some species of parasites and pathogens also attack, infest or infect earthworms…..

Bacteria, Fungi, Mites, Nematodes, Parasitic fly larvae, Platyhelminths worms, Protozoa and Rotifers.

 Refs: Beside my own experiences and observations;

Edwards C.A. & Bohlen P.J., (1996), ” Biology and ecology of Earthworms”, Chapman & Hall, London

Laakso J. & Setala H., (1997), ” Nest mounds of red wood ants (Formica aquilonia) hot spots for litter dwelling earthworms”, Oecolgia 111, p 565-569