My sister found this little guy under one of her clay pots. But what is it? A slug? A weird earthworm? Some mutant creature about to take over the world?
We don't know…
It's "head" is shaped like a hammerhead shark. It is about 3 inches long, slimy and stripped. I am posting it on Twitter to see if anyone knows what it is there.
We have asked 8 expert gardeners here in Los Angeles and looked in all our books. No one can tell us what it is.
Perhaps it is something more common in other parts of the country.
So I open it up to you guys. What is this?
Anyone know?
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Theresa Loe blogs here about taking the garden full circle while striving for a more local, fresh-from-the-garden lifestyle. She is a TV producer, video host, freelance garden writer and a wrangler of chickens and children. (Not necessarily in that order.) For more information on these topics, you can subscribe to her free monthly newsletter.
Theresa Loe is the award- winning Co-Executive Producer & Canning Expert on Growing A Greener World TV. She blogs here about Living Homegrown®, local and fresh-from-the-garden. 
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I think thats a hammer head worm.
UPDATE:
Within minutes of posting on Twitter, @kissmyaster may have found the answer.
Hammerhead worm (Bipalium kewense)
These worms eat earthworms and apparently used to be rare here in California, but are showing up more frequently. As their numbers are growing, the earthworm populations are going down. Not a good thing.
Links:
link to allaboutworms.com
link to davesgarden.com
I will let you know if we have any other possibilities.
Thanks Beth!
I think you may be right! You posted at the same time I did about the hammerhead worm.
Thanks so much.
It’s also called a land planarian – we used the other version in science class a lot
Thanks Vanessa.
They are creepy! And now I know they are not good for the garden. They say that if we find them, we need to kill them with salt or vinegar because they will prey on our earthworms. Great. More to worry about!
link to dirtdoctor.com
Thanks to all the Twitter people and Blog readers who send me ideas/suggestions and links on the worm.
You guys ROCK!
Very cool looking critter. Too bad it’s a nuisance. With all the nasties out there it’s a wonder our plants ever grow up to be produce.
Good point Daniel!
It is amazing that we are ever able to grow a thing!
Well, I totally missed that bit of excitement…both here and on Twitter. Veeery interesting indeed! Thanks to you and all the other folks for enlightening us.
Yes Teresa,
Twitter was alive with activity over this bug. They were so fast in identifying it. Wow! Great bunch of gardeners out there.
Sorry you missed the fun! LOL