1/27/2024 0 Comments Worm with flat headHammerhead worms produce a neurotoxin, tetrodotoxin, which is also found in puffer fish, which are sometimes served in sushi restaurants as “fugu sashi,” where they are prepared by only the most highly skilled chefs. The one thing you don’t want to do if you find a hammerhead worm is touch it, or let your pets, including backyard chickens, eat it. While the glaciers killed almost all the native earthworms north of Pennsylvania, and most of the earthworm species in the United States were brought here by European settlers, earthworms are important for soil health. The biggest concern is the damage the carnivorous worms could do to agriculture, because they are predators of earthworms. They are usually striped, and can grow in length to nearly a foot. With their distinctive heads and long, flat bodies, hammerhead worms, which are members of a large family of flatworms, or planaria, are easy to identify. But now, as the climate warms, these invasive worms are spreading. It has been in the United States since the early 1900s and is most commonly found in states such as Louisiana, where conditions are warm and humid. ![]() ![]() Native to Asia and Madagascar, the hammerhead worm, or Bipalium Kewense, was transported to Europe and the United States in shipments of exotic plants. They were all found underneath stuff like buckets, and rocks.” ![]() “I found them while cleaning up around the yard. “The three hammerhead worms were all found in my dad’s yard on Round Top in Harrisville,” she wrote in an email. What she had found were invasive hammerhead worms. Samantha Young was working in her father’s garden when she saw some strange-looking worms she hadn’t noticed before.
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