Latest Worm Stories
By Jake Griffin jgriffin@@dailyherald.com Ashley Summers' lunch leftovers feed the hungry. Hundreds of worms devour apple cores, banana peels, carrot tops and other organic table scraps she and co-workers at Western DuPage Special Recreation Association leave behind. In return for the staff's generosity, the worms produce a nutrient-rich soil and an equally potent liquid fertilizer, and they also help keep about a half-pound of waste out of local landfills or water treatment plants each...
Researchers at Reading University have found that metal-munching earthworms can help plants to clean up contaminated soils.The team noticed that subtle changes occurred in metals as worms ingested and excreted soil, making it easier for plants to take up potentially toxic metals from contaminated land.Experts suggested at the British Association Science Festival in Liverpool that earthworms could be the future "21st Century eco-warriors".The UK has many areas with contaminated soil...
By Sanjay Bhatt, Seattle Times Jul. 15--Meet the new goldfish for urban hipsters. From Belltown to Capitol Hill, condo and apartment residents are making room for the red wiggler, a slender worm that eats half its weight each day and produces prodigious clumps of poop ("castings") -- perfect for enriching pots of tomatoes, strawberries or just about anything else. The wiggler is, er, gaining ground in Seattle lofts, balconies and even office kitchens as urban dwellers with green thumbs...
By Wendy Leung RANCHO CUCAMONGA - They're squishy. Children love to play with them. And sometimes, they're at the bottom of your tequila. But not often do worms play the central role of a business - unless it's Marcia Iannone's. The Rancho Cucamonga resident, along with her husband Ron, runs a vermiculture compost business from their home, and the slimy, soft- bodied creatures aren't the only things they sell. Touted on their business cards and "wormmobile" is worm poop and worm tea,...
By Wendy Leung Staff Writer RANCHO CUCAMONGA - They're squishy. Children love to play with them. And sometimes, they're in the bottom of your tequila. But not often do worms play the central role of a business - unless it's Marcia Iannone's. The Rancho Cucamonga resident, along with her husband Ron, runs a vermiculture compost business from their home, and the slimy, soft- bodied creatures aren't the only things they sell. Touted on their business cards and "wormmobile" is worm poop...
By Doug Monson, The Free Press, Mankato, Minn. Jun. 29--Last year I set a goal to land 100 bass throughout the fishing season. I didn't reach that goal, but settling in at 77 wasn't all that bad either. This year, with the late spawn and the now-steady action on area lakes (especially the shallower lakes that spawned early) I've already landed 51 largemouths. People always ask me why I stick with the Texas-rigged worm when the fishing pace is slow and it is harder to cover a lot of...
By TOWN AND COUNTRY GERALD MAHAN Interest continues to grow in ways of making agriculture more sustainable. Emphasis is placed on practices like cover crops, grassfed livestock, organic dairy, community supported agriculture, pasture- raised poultry and beneficial insect production to name a few. Several farm tours and workshops are offered June-October through efforts of Innovative Farmers of Ohio, USA-NRCS, Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association, Ohio Forage and...
Here's an idea: Start a project with the kids that will teach them something important about how the Earth sustains itself. Set up a container for vermicomposting. (Yes, this project involves worms. But keep reading.) Vermicomposting turns kitchen waste into compost. You put worms in a container, provide the right environment, then toss your leftovers in with them. And the worms do their job, eating their way through the scraps and, as time goes by, turning all that waste into a nutrient-rich...
A rare 3-foot-long spitting earthworm that smells like lilies is at the heart of a legal battle between conservationists and the U.S. government. When taxonomist Frank Smith discovered the giant Palouse earthworm (Driloleirus americanus) in 1897 by, he described it as "very abundant." Nowadays, however, sightings of the worm are rare. The only recent confirmed worm sighting was made in 2005 by a University of Idaho researcher. Before that, the giant worm had not...
New Haven, Conn. -- Discovery of an exceptional fossil specimen in southeastern Morocco that preserves evidence of the animal's soft tissues has solved a paleontological puzzle about the origins of an extinct group of bizarre slug-like animals with rows of mineralized armor plates on their backs, according to a paper in Nature.While evolution has produced great diversity in the body designs of animals, over the course of history several highly distinct groups, such as trilobites and...
Latest Worm Reference Libraries
Vermicompost is composting with the use of special earthworms. Red wigglers and white worms are the more common worms used, although European night crawlers can be used as well. Red wigglers can be found living in manure piles and in rotting vegetation and adapt the best in covered worm bins. Common earthworms burrow deeply and are not recommended for use in compost bins. Blue worms are commonly used in the tropics. Worms are used to decompose vegetable and food waste along with bedding...
The Christmas Tree Worm (Spirobranchus giganteus) is a species of small, tube-building polychaete worm in the Serpulidae family. It is widely distributed throughout the world’s tropical oceans, occurring abundantly from the Caribbean to the Indo-Pacific. The worm’s common and scientific nomenclature refers to the two chromatically hued spiral structures, most prominently seen by divers. These multicolored spiral structures are actually part of the worm’s highly derived respiratory...
The Giant Feather Duster Worm (Eudistylia polymorpha) is a species of marine polychaete worm of the Sabellidae family. Its range extends along the western coast of North America, from Alaska to California. It is most commonly found in the intertidal zone in tide pools and in the neritic (coastal) zone at depths up to 1,375 feet. It is often found in groups along rocks, reefs, pilings, wharves and marinas. Its common name comes from the crown of tentacles extended when the animal is under...
The Bobbit Worm (Eunice aphroditois) is a species of aquatic polychaete worm found on the ocean floor at depths of 33 to 130 feet. It is only found in the Indo-Pacific oceanic region. This predatory organism buries its long body in gravel, mud or corals in the ocean bed, where it waits patiently for prey food to touch one of its five antennae. When touched, the worm, armed with razor sharp teeth shoots out at its attacker with such speed that it sometimes slices the prey in half. Little is...
The Giant Thorny-headed Worm (Macracanthorhynchus hirudinaceus) is a species of acanthocephalan parasite found in the intestines of pigs and other hoofed animals, and can occasionally appear in humans and dogs. The eggs of this parasite are usually found in scarabaeoid or hydrophilid beetles and other similar insects. Worms of this species range in size from less than four-hundredths of an inch to over 15 inches. It causes enteritis, gastritis or peritonitis in affected hosts. While it...
