“Don’t Lick the Worms.” Hammerhead Flatworms Are Invasive and Toxic — They Might Be In Your Backyard

Generally, even bug researchers get creeped out.

Dr. Theresa Dellinger, an entomologist and diagnostician at Virginia Tech’s Insect Identification Lab, was in her yard in Montgomery County, Virginia, just a few years in the past when she grabbed a backyard planter — and “freaked out.”

“I lifted up a flower pot and the worm was beneath the flower pot,” Dellinger says, laughing now. “The house below the pot was damp and overgrown with moss. I noticed it and I freaked out. I used to be like, ‘What is that this?’ One thing behind my thoughts was, ‘I’m not selecting this up, however the place’s my cellphone?’”

By the point Dellinger situated her cellphone and returned to snap a photograph, the worm — a hammerhead flatworm, to be precise — had disappeared.

What Are Hammerhead Flatworms?

Hammerhead flatworms are a kind of terrestrial worm native to Asia (genus Bipalium). People who have made their strategy to the U.S. usually have a yellowish-brown striped physique and might develop nicely over a foot lengthy. A number of subspecies of hammerhead flatworms exist and are available in a wide range of (typically sensible) colours, striped patterns, and sizes.

“It’s a little stunning to see this stuff as a result of a few of them could be actually lengthy and thin,” says Dellinger. “After which a few of them have an actual broad, shovel-like head,” which is how they get their title.

Some species of hammerhead worms have been proven to supply a neurotoxin. So in case you’re dealing with this stuff, says Dellinger, use frequent sense.

“They will’t chew they usually can’t sting, so there’s no means for them to inject it into you. However in case you dealt with one together with your naked pores and skin on and also you had a lower or an abrasion, I assume it’s doable you would get it into the wound that means,” says Dellinger. “And even in case you had gloves on and you then wiped your face with the glove, you would get it into your eyes or nostril. So mainly, don’t lick the worms. That’s actually what we’ve got to inform individuals.”

So far as she is aware of, nobody has actually been injured or damage by hammerhead worms. (“It’s only a basic rule of thumb. Don’t put the bizarre worm in your mouth.”) There’s lots of unknowns about hammerhead flatworms — together with the position that neurotoxin performs in its ecology.

“We don’t actually know why they’ve this neurotoxin and it’s associated to a number of the neurotoxins which can be present in aquatic animals. So why they’re nonetheless utilizing the identical neurotoxin, we don’t actually know. However it’s in all probability a means for them to subdue their prey extra simply. And we don’t know if all hammerhead worms have that neurotoxin or not.”

What to Do If You Discover a Hammerhead Flatworm

Whereas Dellinger doesn’t assume killing hammerhead worms will beat again their numbers, she acknowledges that somebody with younger youngsters or pets may really feel in a different way.

“Realizing what I do know now, if I noticed one once more, I’d in all probability attempt to get an image of it, however I’m not essentially gonna kill it as a result of I determine at this level they’re so nicely established that killing one isn’t essentially going to do a lot. If I had young children that like to choose issues up I may not go away it within the space.”

What it’s best to not do in case you determine to kill a hammerhead flatworm is pull out your pocketknife. That’s as a result of hammerhead flatworms can regenerate from sections of its physique. 

“Should you discover a hammerhead worm, don’t lower it up as a result of they will regenerate into new people. And that’s a attribute of all of the land plenarians, not simply these guys. So in case you really feel like you could kill the hammerhead worm, put it in one thing that it will probably’t escape from and put it within the freezer or out within the solar till the solar kills it. However don’t simply chop it up into items after which throw these items into your compost pile, since you’ll in all probability wind up with extra.”

Alternatively, you would add salt, soapy water, or hand sanitizer to the container for a faster dying. Dellinger additionally says to not use salt or pesticides in broad areas of your yard to kill hammerhead worms, because the collateral injury is just too nice.

“It’s going to kill all the opposite useful bugs and invertebrates, or at the least non-threatening issues, that is perhaps out within the soil. And it’ll damage the vegetation in case you put down sufficient salt,” says Dellinger. “Should you see one and you’ve got a canine that likes to eat stuff, possibly go forward and eliminate the worm. However it’s not value attempting to deal with your complete yard to only stop hammerhead worms.”

The place Are Hammerhead Flatworms Discovered

These worms don’t normally dwell in dry areas, however as a substitute desire moist natural matter like mulch, soil, backyard beds, and leaf litter  the place their prey (different worms and mollusks, like snails) lives. They’re mostly discovered within the Eastern U.S. and the Pacific Coast, although they’ve been noticed as far south as Texas.

Hammerhead flatworms had been launched to North America a few century in the past or extra, almost definitely by means of the horticultural commerce within the soil of potted vegetation. Data documenting their presence return to at the least the Nineteen Forties, says Dellinger. In reality, they’ve been right here so lengthy nobody’s actually positive what our native soil seemed like earlier than their arrival or what, if any, injury they’ve completed to that ecosystem.

“We don’t know a complete lot about hammerhead worms as a result of there’s not lots of funding to check this stuff,” says Dellinger. “And we don’t have something actually measurable to point out that it’s an actual concern” due to once they arrived.

Federal funding that supported coaching of taxonomists and federal laboratories have been chopping again. That’s how Dellinger (who research bugs, not invertebrates, as worms technically are) discovered herself fielding calls about poisonous worms.

“We’re not getting new recruits to interchange the people who find themselves retiring and leaving the enterprise,” says Dellinger. “There’s a scarcity of taxonomists, and people are the individuals who concentrate on identification of bugs. After which as a result of there aren’t many individuals engaged on issues like snails and worms, we [entomologists] sort of get lumped collectively for all of the bizarre issues.”

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In consequence, correct estimates about what number of hammerhead flatworms there are within the U.S. don’t actually exist. The very best useful resource for checking their existence in your space, says Dellinger, is iNaturalist, which makes use of citizen-science by means of person submissions to establish sightings and subspecies across the nation.