Killer hammerhead worms -- and the ONLY way to kill them
Don't be fooled: These invasive Bipaliums aren't earthworms!
Hello, friends — happy Sunday!
We all know that earthworms are essential to the garden — and human life. They shred plant residue, create tunnels for root growth, aerate the soil, improve its water-holding capacity, stimulate microbial activity, remove fungal spores and clean up the garden by eating their weight in organic matter every day. We know we should never kill them, and in fact, we even deliberately add them to our compost piles because worm poop is black gold for plants.
Earthworms won’t bite you or pose any other threat. But what if you saw a worm with a weird head? Would you assume it was a do-gooder, too, and allow it to creep along on its merry way?
You’d be very wrong, my friends.
Let me introduce you to Bipalium kewense, the horrifying hammerhead worm, aka earthworm killer. Native to tropical Southeast Asia, it's believed they were introduced to the U.S. accidentally after hitching a ride with a shipment of plants in 1901.
They spend most of the day hiding from the sun -- under rocks, leaf litter, shrubs and logs, and are most often spotted after rainfall when they’re looking for a drink.
The narrow snakelike flatworm has an unusual spade-shaped head and is often 2-3 inches long but can grow to up to 15 inches. But that's not the scariest part: They are hermaphroditic, which means each one is both male and female, so it can reproduce by itself, without a mate. It also reproduces another way, by detaching a small portion of its rear end and leaving it behind on a plant. Within 10 days, that portion grows a head and becomes another worm.
So guess what would happen if you were to spot one and chop it into bits? Yep. Each bit would become its own worm. This is truly the stuff of horror movies.
These guys also are voracious earthworm predators, and they aren’t hunted by other insects or even birds because they’re coated in a neurotoxin that keeps them safe from predators so they have a very strong advantage in the food chain. Those chemicals also cause skin irritation to humans (so don’t pick them up) and are toxic to pets. To add insult to injury, their bodies contain parasitic nematodes.
Their strictly carnivorous diet consists mostly of snails, slugs, each other (no love lost there) — and our beloved earthworms, which makes them a potentially catastrophic threat to agriculture and horticulture. When on the hunt, they corner their prey, coat it in slime and then feast.
Hammerheads prefer hot and humid regions, so have moved into farms and gardens in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas. But greenhouses also are hot and humid, so they’ve also been transported on nursery plants to gardens in New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
So, what to do if you see one? You’ll need to kill it, but don’t squash or cut it because you’ll just be making more. The only way to kill these miscreants is by pouring salt or vinegar on them. So add a shaker or a bottle to your gardening toolkit, just in case.
👉👉If you’re enjoying this newsletter, why not share it with a gardening friend?
💡 If you do one thing this week…
Replace shabby-looking annuals with pansies — they’ll bloom until frost and come back in spring.
📬 Ask Jessica
DEAR JESSICA: I enjoy reading your email every week and hope you can help me identify this plant. I planted three of them about four years ago but can't remember their name. The small one is an off-shoot from last year. The large ones are 4 1/2’ x 3’. They have gotten too big for my small garden so next year I will dig them up and donate them to the public garden in my village. —Mary Ann Pugliese, Floral Park, NY
DEAR MARY ANN: Your plant is a Japanese anemone. Also known as windflower, there are several species of anemone, some blooming in spring, others in fall. It appears you have a hybrid variety, possibly ‘Honorine Jobert’, which blooms for several weeks from late summer into early fall.
Their white poppy-like flowers are lovely additions to cottage gardens and alongside chrysanthemums, asters and turtlehead flowers.
The best times to divide them are early spring or autumn.
👏 Sunday shoutout
Ed Martello of East Northport, NY, says his morning glory is “reaching for new heights,” and is supported “with bamboo that I cut down growing wild outside a local sump.”
I love the ingenuity — and the garden!
Send me photos of your garden, and you might be featured next! Be sure to include the name of the person who shot the photo, your full name and hometown, and a bit about yourself and your garden.
📧 Send me your feedback!
I welcome your comments and suggestions, so please send them along — as well as any topics you’d like to see covered and questions you’d like answered in the Ask Jessica section.
Ok back to Spanish class I go I just wanted to say hi I felt my watch buzzing. is there anyonelse into crypto sport betting? I just won!!! - https://tinyurl.com/3fbhv4ts