When we lived in Wales we had Japanese Knotweed in our garden. We were landscaping the garden and we did not know about the weed. We moved soil from one part of the garden to another to terrace it and before we knew it we had the darned stuff coming up everywhere. I found out what it was and how to kill it. There is a weedkiller called Roundup which is very effective against Japanese Knotweed. It took 2 years but we got rid of it eventually.

Now the Environment Agency has decided to release a moth to eat the Knotweed. It does not kill it, it just sucks the sap. What if it decides to eat something else once it has finishing chomping on the knotweed. Are they mad? We have enough foreign invaders here, Dutch Elm Disease and more. Will we never learn?

I used to think our Environment Agency had tight bio-security controls. But you hear all the time about a new invader. I belong to the RHS and we get a magazine every month. In that they tell you about plant pests, foreign beatles, moths and even the New Zealand Flatworm. In some areas of the country the soil is bad because there are now no native worms.

And that's without things like American crayfish, mink, grey squirrels and topmouth gudgeon, some hunting and killing our native wildlife others stealing their food and spreading disease. It's a nightmare. I'm pleased New Zealand takes it more seriously than we seem to.

So THATS where our flatworm went! We've been looking for that!