Everything about earthworms

Even though earthworms don’t have any legs, their setae help them move through the soil. Each part of a worm’s body is made up of four pairs of setae. The earthworm has two sets of muscles. One makes it long and skinny, and the other makes it fat.

A simple brain and nerve cord make up a worm’s nervous system. Some night crawlers (earthworms) can live for 5 to 10 years! This is likely because they are so far below the surface that birds can’t attack and eat them (unlike the common red earthworm).

Different kinds of earthworms:

Red earthworms are the ones you will see most often in your garden. They live close to the ground. These guys can be raised only to eat trash.

The night crawler lives much deeper in the ground, maybe 6 feet down.

There are more than 2700 different kinds of earthworms.

Quizzes: Fun Biology Quizzes for Kids

What does a worm have in it?

There can be anywhere from 120 to 170 rings on a fully grown earthworm. Its mouth is in the first part, and its anus is in the last part. Earthworms can be anywhere from 1 to 2 inches long to 8 feet long. (The species is from Ecuador in South America and is 8 feet long.) Did you know that there are FIVE hearts in an earthworm? These hearts send blood, which has oxygen and nutrients from the food the worm eats, to all the different parts of its body. Earthworms are both male and female. This means that they have two genitalia. One bit is for a boy, and the other is for a girl. But another worm has to come along and make the eggs grow. A worm will lay all of its eggs at once. Once their eggs have hatched, they don’t take care of them.

What does a worm eat, and how does it eat?

It eats dirt, digesting the plant and animal matter in the soil, and then gets rid of the rest. The waste of an earthworm helps to feed the soil. It gets rid of its waste through tubes called nephridin that lead to pores. It has an esophagus where food goes in, a crop where food is stored, a powerful muscle system called the gizzard that grinds the food, intestines where the food goes and nutrients are taken out, and an anus where the food comes out.

How do earthworms get air?

A worm doesn’t have any parts that help it breathe. It gets oxygen through its skin and releases carbon dioxide. It always has wet skin.

Why do earthworms play such a big role in nature?

They are very important because most of their time is spent digging in the dirt and eating bits of leaves and dead animals. They do three things as they do it:

The way they eat helps to turn the soil.

The tunnels they make as they move through the soil “aerate” it, which means they let it get air that it wouldn’t get any other way.

Worm poop, also called “castings,” adds nutrients back into the soil.

These three things actually help the soil grow more plants. Worms turn over the soil in your garden, on a farm, or anywhere else that soil needs to be moved by eating and going to the bathroom. This conversion process can go down about 6 feet into the ground, but it can’t be done by just one kind of earthworm.

Help you child to build a worm farm

A way to help your child who is interested in earthworms is that you can go outside and build their own worm farm.