What is this worm? Nemertean? Nope. Flatworm.

[Philsuma]

When you see reference to "nemerteans" they are actually, 99.99999% of the time, a terrestrial flatworm (Rynchodemus sp). Although there are terrestrial nemerteans, they are basically unheard of as viv pests whereas flatworms are common in vivs and greenhouses and mild climates, like Hawaii.

They are capable arthropod predators - including fruit flies and small isopods and they can consume them in large numbers when the worms' population booms. In my experience, they will decline over time to relative rarity. I have observed my frogs eating them more than once and now I rarely see one ever (less than than once every 6 months) and I observe my viv daily.

So: Remove the ones you see (they are especially active at night and on wet surfaces of leaves, broms and glass). There's not really anything else you can do to eliminate them quickly. They go after fruit flies, especially the larger 'worms', and you will also see the tell-tale husks of dead flies clinging to plants or glass.



1. Relax. Take a deep breath. NO NEED for a vivarium tear-down and god forbid a silly 'dry ice/ CO2' blunder that almost never works for any viv pest - doesn't kill  the eggs and adults survive more than you would think. Chemicals and poisons are goofy and preposterous. Don't consider them.

1. They WILL peter out. Every vivarium pest has a 'boom and bust' cycle. They will NOT harm your frogs, froglets or frog eggs.

2. Use a paper towel section or a Kleenex ripped  in half -no need to waste an entire paper product and grab them and ball up the paper and into the trash .NO way they are surviving that. Just keep at it, and after a while of hand-removing them, you will see less and less and then....none. I have hand removed at least a dozen vivs and they go away quicker than you think and rarely come back and never 'with a vengeance'.


Post content by Kimcmich and some editing and additional content by Philsuma.

[Philsuma]

Look for these F'ers at night and after you wet the tank down. They love wet glass to hunt FF on. They corner the fly and surround it like a slimy worm encircles and kill it draining the fly and leaving the hollow carcass on the glass.  That's how you really know they are there - all the dead fly bodies.

They also like wet soil. Shine a light on your substrate when the room is dark and look for the entire floor of the tank to shine and shimmer. That's them ! The horrible worms!!

I think large isopods can fend them off and may even eat them.

Frogs do not eat them, it seems.

[Philsuma]

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