WORM FACTS

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1. There are loads of them!

Dig and hole in the garden and you are sure to uncover a worm or two.  In fact there can be up to 1.75 million worms per acre of land in good quality soils such as farmland. Poor quality soils will have on average 1/4 million worms hectare.  

There are 6,000 species of worms, of which 120 are widely distributed around the world.

2. They recycle our waste

Worms process and enrich the soil.  They eat dead organic matter in the soil, eating up to their own body weight in organic matter every day.  They can process 10 pounds of organic matter every year. Worms will often pull items down from the surface to process them underground.

3. They aerate our soil

When worms push themselves through in the soil they force air through the tunnels.  This helps to aerate the soil and keep it healthy. 

4. Earthworms are hermaphrodites.

They have both male and female sexual organs.  Worms mate sexually, exchanging sperm with each other. Both worms will go on to produce offspring.

5. They have no eyes

Instead they have light receptor cells which can sense light.  This enables them to stay underground where it is safe.  Worms bodies secrete a mucus that will dry out in direct sunlight.  

6. They can regenerate

Some worms can regenerate if they lose segments of their bodies and two worms can be produced if a worm is dissected.  However, only certain species do this and most will go on to form only a single worm from the head segment.

7. Worms are essential to the food chain

Worms are essential food for many animals such as birds, snakes, hedgehogs, voles, beetles, snails and slugs and foxes.

8. Some are big

Giant earthworms can grow as large as 3 meters long.

9. They breathe through their skin

Worms don't have lungs so they breath through tiny holes (spiracles) along their body. They often rise to the surface after heavy rain to avoid suffocation as the waterlogged soil does not allow gases to diffuse across their body.

10. Worms have been around a long time.

They are 1/2 billion years old.  They have survived mass extinctions and outlived the dinosaurs. 

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