Worms: Why Are They Slimy and Other Facts
- A worm has no eyes, legs or arms.
- There are 2700 different types of earthworms in the world.
- There can be up to 1 MILLION earthworms in just 1 acre of land.
- 22 foot long earthworm was found in South Africa.
- Worms help plants by mixing the soil. So gardeners love them because they are “free” help!
- The sticky slime a worm makes helps keep it from drying out. If the worm dries out, it will die, because it “breathes” through it’s skin.
- Earthworms can replace lost parts. Some types are better at this than others.
- Baby worms hatch from a cocoon. You can read about the life cycle here.
- A single worm has both male and female parts. This is called a hermaphrodite. But they still need a mate to reproduce.
- EEven without eyes, a worm can still sense light and will move away from it.
- Earthworms come to the surface when it rains because they need oxygen to breathe, and they would drown if they stayed in the soil.
- Some of the largest worms can live to be 50 years old.
- Regular earthworm can live 15 years.
- Some people eat earthworms, like some people in China and New Zealand.
- Worms use a gizzard to grind up food instead of teeth.
- Vermicomposting is the treatment of wastes, like kitchen scraps, using worms.
- A worm chopped in half will not become 2 worms. Just the head end will regenerate into a new worm.
- Worms can have up to 5 hearts depending on the type of worm it is.
- You can buy a Worm Observation Farm to watch worms close up!
Having discovered a fondness for insects while pursuing her degree in Biology, Randi Jones was quite bugged to know that people usually dismissed these little creatures as “creepy-crawlies”.
