Facts About Worms I Never Knew Before

Anyone who fishes knows that night crawlers are the best bait to use. I, for one, fish with nothing else. One night, while in my back yard attempting t catch some for fishing the next day, I decided to learn more about them. You see, I was absent the day that we dissected them in school, so I really didn't know much more than they come out on their own at night or if the ground is soaked and that they are great for fishing with!

So, in attempt to learn more about them, I found out some very interesting facts. The first thing I learned is that, contrary to popular belief, when we cut a worm in half, it really does not create two worms! They really do have a head and a tail, and although they may be able to re-grow their tail, once the head is gone, it is gone in most cases. Okay, but how can I tell which end it the head and which is the tail? The head is the side that is located closest to that bump in its body. If you look watch the worm crawl, it will generally be crawling forward, and if you are unsure, you can always look at it under a magnifying glass.

This knowledge got me to thinking a bit more about them. I know that when I am hunting for them in my back yard, I use a flashlight. It seems that they always see the slightest glimmer of my light and quickly retreat into the ground. This got me wondering just how they see me coming. I would assume that for them to be digging into the ground, they would be head first, therefore; they wouldn't see me coming. Well, according to

Night crawlers live under ground and only come out at night unless forced out of the ground by some other means, such as a heavy rain. Knowing that I could not live and breathe being under ground all day, I wanted to know how they do manage to breathe and survive under ground as they do. They burrow very deep into the ground after all. According, once again, to

Okay, so, night crawlers have a mouth, but no eyes or nose. They breathe through their skin and smell through special sense organs called chemo receptors or taste receptors that are near the front of their body. They eat organic matter, including decaying plants, roots, animals, and even tiny living organisms that are too small for a human to see. In one day, a worm can eat up to one-third of their own body weight!

Night crawlers are not only good for fishing. If you ask a gardener, they will tell you that night crawlers are good for the soil too. They help to naturally aerate the ground and even add nutrients to the soil. I knew that they helped to keep the soil loose, but really had no idea that they did anything else for my garden. According to

So, how do they reproduce. I have seen them "stuck" together many times, but never really understood how it worked. According to

Now, my curiosity is satisfied. I know a little more about night crawlers than I did before. One more important thing that I learned, for all of us fishermen and gardeners. If we catch too many night crawlers and take them out of our yards, they will become less abundant there. So, in order to keep a nice balance, it is wise to only catch them once in a while. Allow them the chance to grow and breed and they will easily help you to not only catch fish, but alto help your garden to grow.

www.biologyjunction.com/earthworm%20facts.htm they have no eyes at all, but they have organs that are light and touch sensitive that are called receptor cells. These cells help a worm determine how bright light is and to feel vibrations in the ground, both which can tell them if danger may be near. So, even if their head is in the ground, as soon as I walk towards them or shine even the tiniest bit of light on them, they know to retreat to avoid danger.

www.biologyjunction.com/earthworm%20facts.htm they breathe through their skin. Earthworms need a humid environment to keep their skin moist and coat their skin with mucus to help dissolved oxygen reach their bloodstream. I never knew that before.

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/worms/facts/index.html when worms tunnel as deeply as they do into the ground, up to 6 and a half feet, they bring the subsoil closer to the top and mix it with the topsoil. That nasty slime on worms actually contains nitrogen which is important for plant growth. That slime also helps hold the soil together.

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/earthworms.html worms mate on the surface, not under ground. They have both male and female sex organs, but do not reproduce without a mate. They excrete sperm and eggs through that bump in their bodies, which is called the clitella. If the worm does not yet have this feature, it is not a mature worm. They two worms, while mating form a cocoon that is very tiny and shaped like a lemon. They deposit the sperm and egg cells into the cocoon and bury it. Two to four weeks later, baby worms are born and will begin to emerge out of the ground.