If you see a hammerhead worm, get rid of it as soon as possible
With every new resource being imported to new places, the list of invasive species also grows. Bugs, whether the arthropod or worm variety, will sneak in undetected until it’s too late. By the time we notice them, they’re already treating themselves to native resources that they have no right to.
This time, it’s the hammerhead flatworm.
This long, slippery, flat-headed worm does not have the same role as your friendly earthworm.
Hammerhead flatworms have a flat, hammer-shaped noggin like the similarly named hammerhead shark. But this worm is a bit more destructive than your average shark.
These worms are greedy and unwelcome visitors.
Earthworms are friendly shepherds of the soil. They keep it healthy and nutritious.
Hammerhead flatworms are here to sabotage those plans.
Hammerhead flatworms go after earthworms and turn them into dinner.
Not good, considering our agriculture and ecosystem depend on friendly earthworms to keep the soil healthy.
Sleek, unsuspecting, and hungry, they sneak into earthworm dens and devour the poor things. That’s pretty much what most invasive species do: treat themselves to the foreign resources and make things harder for the locals.
In this case, hammerhead flatworms have several things that give them away.
They usually have a stripe, no visible segments (unlike earthworms), and that distinct hammerhead. As for dimensions, they can be anywhere from 4 to 18 inches long.
To make things worse, these worms are also frustratingly hard to get rid of.
As flatworms, chopping them up is no good – unless you want to make more of them.
Like other flatworms, they can reproduce asexually by growing a whole new worm from a severed body piece. Kind of like the heads on the mythological hydra.
Pretty creepy, huh?
Don’t bother trying to feed them to something either. They secrete a foul-tasting, toxic and noxious substance that’ll get them puked back out – in one piece too. Even another animal’s digestive system isn’t doing anything to them. They smell pretty bad too.
Your best bet with these pesky creeps is to take them out swiftly and efficiently. Put them in a sealed bag and pour some salt on them. Then toss the bag away in a garbage can. Bye-bye, you jerks.
You can also just squash them. It’s messy, but it works. Just be absolutely sure you’ve squashed the whole worm.
After all these years of earthworms keeping our soils healthy for free, the least we could do is help them out. Get rid of these hostile visitors every time we see them, lest our soils and their caretakers pay the price.
Invasive species are a stark reminder of how delicate our ecosystems really are.
Import and introduce to please some people, and before you know it, one little stowaway has managed to overturn a whole local ecosystem.
While “creepy crawlies” tend to be an unfair way to paint all bugs, these ones actually fit the stereotype pretty well.
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