Earthworms!

 

When I was growing up, nighttime excursions in the back yard after a good rain were a fun time. My dad and I loved to fish for largemouth bass, and nothing gets the attention of a hungry fish like a nice, fat night crawler. We would go out with a pail and a flashlight. We noticed that night crawlers were very sensitive to light. Although they do not have eyes like we have, they can “sense” light and dark, especially on their ends. If you turned the light right on them, they would pull back into the ground before you could get close. They are also sensitive to vibrations so we would have to walk very slowly and quietly. When you grabbed one, they would feel slimy. The slime is called mucus. They use it to protect their skin. Since they breathe through their skin, if it dries out, they will die. They also have short, bristly hairs (kind of like you daddy’s whiskers if he forgets to shave) that help them pull into their burrows and keep them from being pulled out easily.

The head end is darker brown that the rest of the worm. That’s where you can find its hearts. He has 5 of them! Worms like to eat organic matter (things like dead leaves on the ground) that they find in the dirt. They spit the dirt back out at the surface. They look like little piles of round, wet, dirtballs. Many people like to put these in their garden because they contain nutrients for plants. Earthworms help aerate the soil and help turn leaves and other debris into usable nutrients for plants. We call animals that do that decomposers. In the fall they leave little pouches with eggs in the soil. Soon they hatch out and begin to burrow in the ground in their own tunnels’

There are many different earthworms around the world. Some are very small like red worms. One variety from South Africa can be 21 feet long! Australia also has huge earth worms that can grow to 9 feet. Some here in the Central Valley can flop around like little break dancers. We call these “snake worms”.

Here’s a video about giant earth worm. Wow they’re huge!

Well I hope you liked our talk about earthworms!

Love Papaw.