The Hammerhead Worm

https://www.texasmonthly.com/travel/meet-nightmare-hammerhead-worm/

by bikenaga • 3 years ago

133 92 3 years ago

webnrrd2k• 3 years ago

I remember finding one of those at our house in Orange County, California, in the mid-80's. I was a teen, and it really grossed me out. Apparently, They've been a problem for quite a while.

nomel• 3 years ago

I found one in Sacramento, California area, mid 2k. It's an impressive worm!

ouid• 3 years ago

2400-2600?

xbar2• 3 years ago

I found one in the Bay Area 5 years ago. Then another the year after. Salt was effective.

CameronNemo• 3 years ago

I found a couple in my (earth)worm bin a couple years ago (also in the OC). That might be a good way to bait them, actually.

commondream• 3 years ago

We have these in our yard in SC.

samstave• 3 years ago

The last thing I want in an article about HammerHead Worms is ads such as these on the page...

https://i.imgur.com/QvMMfTV.png

selcuka3• 3 years ago

Come on, it's Texas Monthly.

selcuka3• 3 years ago

It's (sic) mouth is located in the underside of the middle of the body (not the head!).

Eerie...

hinkley• 3 years ago

tetrodotoxin

Well that's a new wrinkle. Wonder what it does to birds.

andrewflnr• 3 years ago

You'd think chopping it into several pieces would do it, even if just two doesn't. Or are they like sea stars where tiny bits of them can fully regenerate?

f1shy• 3 years ago

There must be a limit. Like: Will it blend?

bee_rider3• 3 years ago

The ability of starfish to regenerate varies from species to species. I’m not sure that any have the ability to regenerate from a tiny bit (well, depends on the definition of tiny of course).

Their mouths are in the center of their body, so if that part is destroyed anything that is going to regenerate will have to deal with the inability to eat while doing so, which is problematic!

koliber• 3 years ago

I don't know about this particular species, but some planaria can be split into more than one piece and regenerate. A record is over 60 from what I recall from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-9rLlFgcm0

deceptionatd• 3 years ago

The linked paper towards the end is pretty interesting: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ddi.13489 (open access)

Figures 3 and 4 show the estimated increase in range through the 2070s with continuing climate change. It looks like these nice little neurotoxin-secreting worms will become more widespread, which sounds great.

barbazoo• 3 years ago

Great

chiph• 3 years ago

I haven't seen any near me in the Carolinas. But I'm going to stock up on vinegar and salt just in case.

forgetfreeman• 3 years ago

They've been in the Triangle area of NC for over a decade now. Can confirm that salt wears them out more or less instantly.

clusterhacks• 3 years ago

I found an 8-10 inch one in a wooded, non-garden area in a central NC backyard a couple years ago. Definitely here.

jwx48• 3 years ago

I've seen many on the campus of Elon University.

the-mitr• 3 years ago

I have seen one of these in predating action. It just got hold of a small snail and it was like a scene from a horror movie. It literally devoured that snail with a widening jaw in a few seconds with a very very vicious and relentless attack. Really stuff of nightmares.

dendrite9• 3 years ago

WBUR did an interesting show about hammerhead worms and other invasives. I'm glad there are people playing attention closely enough to notice such things. Lately I've been trying to learn the fungi and slime molds growing in various places around my yard. Maybe with time I'll be able to notice new species coming in. https://www.wbur.org/endlessthread/2023/01/27/wormwars

"When Endless Thread producer Nora Saks learns that a "toxic, self-cloning worm that poops out of its mouth is invading Maine", she starts sounding the alarm about the impending eco-doom.

Until, that is, state experts clue her into the "real threat"; a different creepy crawly wriggling towards The Pine Tree State's gardens and precious forests, and fast.

In an attempt to find out more about this real threat, co-hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Nora Saks tunnel down a wormhole, encountering a long history of xenophobic rhetoric about so-called invasive species, and some hard truths about the field of invasion biology itself. Eventually, they wind up at a community garden in Bangor, Maine, where the worm wars are playing out in real time."

rexarex2• 3 years ago

‘Wormhole’ nice.

ledauphin2• 3 years ago

honest question: does public awareness of their invasiveness have any chance of making a difference? does the salt-and-vinegar thing at all meaningfully reduce their population? i have trouble imagining it but would love to hear of evidence to the contrary.

whyenot• 3 years ago

No and no. It is possible to stop invasive species, but it requires catching them before they have spread widely, or that they are restricted to a small area (like rats on Midway Atoll). Once an invasive species has spread widely, there is very little that can be done. You can extirpate them in a small area, but due to the characteristics that make them invasive, it’s virtually impossible to completely get rid of them.

rexarex2• 3 years ago

The province of Alberta in Canada is famously rat free. They stopped the spreading westward wave of rats in the 1950s and have maintained this status.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/alberta-rat-free

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/15/alberta-rat-ca...

https://www.alberta.ca/albertas-rat-control-program.aspx

ledauphin2• 3 years ago

this is really interesting. i would have assumed poison would be a major factor in control, but at least on the government website that is not suggested to be the case.

10u152• 3 years ago

The salt and vinegar thing annoyed me. If you're putting the worm in a sealed zip lock bag, isn't it going to die anyway, eventually? Salt and vinegar just seems to be gilding the lily.

kuratkull• 3 years ago

I think it's assumed you throw the bag away as trash. The bag might break and the worm escape. I'm willing to bet the worm can live for some time in the bag.

vanattab• 3 years ago

Maybe the worm could tear through?

akiselev• 3 years ago

Hammerhead BBQ time! This is Texas' answer to Japan's fugu fish cuisine!

tomcam9• 3 years ago

The animal life in Texas is quietly working on a long-term merger with Australia while you people stare impotently at screens all day, agonizing over trivia such as Emacs vs neovim (obvious answer: neovim, but I digress).

Action must be taken.

melony• 3 years ago

Indeed, what is Spanish for Aux armes, ingénieurs en développement logiciel?

tomcam9• 3 years ago

me gusta neovim

nntwozz• 3 years ago

I think humanity as a whole can only really start focusing on the real problems once we settle on the Emacs vs neovim debate. It's all about setting the right priorities, right?

tomcam9• 3 years ago

Only a few people get it. You are in the vanguard, my friend

bee_rider3• 3 years ago

I don’t think anyone cares about emacs vs vim anymore. (Because that would require caring about emacs even a little bit). It is now VSCode vs neovim and it seems like a tough fight.

xattt• 3 years ago

Why not nano?

sacnoradhq2• 3 years ago

Anyone else want to rally at the State Capitol? ;)

I remember onetime around Oklahoma, my grandpa was driving a fully-loaded '94 Maxima with my grandma, aunt, mom, and myself. He then proceeded to drive slowly through a tarantula migration where the entire road was covered with large, dark round, shapes as far as they eye could see in every direction moving northwest. Grandma, who had terrible vision, flung the rear door open and leaned out parallel to the ground like a cartoon character to get a better look. I swear she was about to fall out.

PS: Neovim is the correct answer. Kill regular Vi with fire and nuke VS Code from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. Emacs is for people trying to turn people and the entire world into LISP. Nothing wrong with that, but keep your religion out of my beliefs.

tomcam9• 3 years ago

You had me at “tarantula migration“

nurettin• 3 years ago

I use lisp, but not emacs. Keep your editor out of my religion.

taskforcegemini• 3 years ago

kill regular vi, or regular vim?

boppo13• 3 years ago

Does neovim let me select a term and quick-list declarations, the definition, & references across the codebase? Step-by-step debug with gdb integration? Otherwise I have to clutch my VS Code.

I'm not shit flinging. Always wanted to be a 1337 FOSSy cli-only hackerman until I started trying to contribute to a C codebase with a thousand files of thousands of lines of code. Hung my head in shame and installed VS Code.

eternityforest2• 3 years ago

All editors other than VS Code are for people whose favorite thing to use an editor for is making editor plugins

msla• 3 years ago

Implement neovim in Emacs. It's the only solution.

tomcam9• 3 years ago

Elegant

brucethemoose22• 3 years ago

I grew up in Texas, and thought the wildlife was the most hostile in the US. We had the big mosquitos, nasty bugs, and predators all in our neighborhood...

Then I moved to Florida.

permo-w• 3 years ago

the one thing worse than big mosquitoes: small mosquitoes

Shorn• 3 years ago

answer: neovim

Hammerhead worms: Attack!

photochemsyn• 3 years ago

These things hitchhike in soil (flowerpots etc.). Soil solarization strategies might help, from the simplest (placing black plastic sheeting over recently turned-over soil on hot days) to building a black-plastic lined box with a clear plexiglass cover for smaller volumes. There are a lot of how-to YT videos etc.

osigurdson• 3 years ago

Ahhhh- so much to fear. What’s next, a sharknado perhaps?

praptak• 3 years ago

At least it's not a computer worm that takes advantage of a freshly discovered Hammerhead vulnerability.

tenderfault• 3 years ago

"zip the bag and throw it away" may not be the best advice for killing said entity.

WesolyKubeczek• 3 years ago

Also: all the plastic pollution.

mnemotronic• 3 years ago

Maybe the vinegaroons (https://www.texasmonthly.com/travel/do-not-fear-the-land-lob...) can go after the hammerheads.

thunderbird120• 3 years ago

Fun fact, most earthworms in North America are invasive. In entire large regions of the country in which we think of earthworms as being common, they mostly didn't exist until European colonization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_earthworms_of_North_A...

tombert• 3 years ago

I think it's a direct consequence of cats killing all the early birds. My understanding is that they were the ones who got the worm.

totetsu• 3 years ago

These things are called pollution bugs in Japan. The first time I came across one I had no idea what it was. The way they move flapping their wing head is fascinating.

friend_and_foe• 3 years ago

Interestingly, theyre a threat because they eat earthworms, which are not native to north america and were imported from Europe.

Other examples of nativized species like this are dandelions and trout.

hoppla• 3 years ago

<quote>When you spot one, put it in a Ziploc bag—while protecting your hand with a napkin or gloves—and add vinegar or salt.</quote>

Why the need for protection? Does it bite?

hellweaver666• 3 years ago

It excretes the same neurotoxin as puffer fish

jb1991• 3 years ago

This is discussed in detail in the actual article.

Dylanfm• 3 years ago

We have a similar invasive worm in Scotland and elsewhere in Europe: New Zealand Flatworm and Australian Flatworm. I've lost count of the number of NZ flatworms that I've killed in salty water over the past few months. I'm losing hope of removing them from our small market garden. There are far fewer earthworms in the patches the flatworm flourished before I found them.

I am very interested how organic growers in NZ deal with them. If they're a problem in their native regions.

Borrible• 3 years ago

Nice, reminds me of the eating habits of some leeches.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fGGz6d3vC4

The Hammerhead Worm

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