Have You Seen This?

By Sherri Blevins
Many people have heard of hammerhead sharks, but have you heard of a hammerhead worm? In all my years on Sand Mountain, I have never heard of, let alone seen, a hammerhead worm until Tuesday, July 20, 2021.
While working at the newspaper office, I heard someone come in the front door. I greeted the customer and expected him to need a subscription or some other paper-related issue. However, I was caught off guard when he produced pictures of a new creature he found in his yard. When he first spotted the crawler, he thought he had found a baby snake. He caught it and placed it in a jar. That would not have been my reaction. After examining it closer, he discovered it was not a snake but a worm – a hammerhead worm.
Upon further research of the worm, he discovered that the hammerhead worm or bipalium is considered invasive.
According to an MU Extension article, Hammerhead worms leave a mucus trail and excrement that help them glide along. The worms produce sexually by laying eggs and asexually by fragmenting and growing new heads and tails when cut into pieces.
The newspaper visitor then went to his car and brought an entire family of hammerhead worms he found in his driveway that washed up during the last rainstorm we had. He had the worms in a jar, and the jar was covered with a white mucous substance. The visitor wanted me to research the worm and make residents of Sand Mountain aware of its presence and caution them to take them seriously.
Here is what I found. According to ThoughtCo.com, the hammerhead worm (Bipalium sp.) is a terrifying, toxic terrestrial flatworm. This large planarian lives on land and is both a predator and a cannibal. While the distinctive-looking worms don’t pose a direct threat to human beings, they’re an invasive species that packs the power to eradicate earthworms.