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The humble earthworm makes the busy bee look like a loafer.
The remarkable worm works so hard and so well that it could justly claim to be man’s best friend.
No less a scientist than Charles Darwin wrote: “It may be doubted if there are any other animals which have played such an important part in the history of the world as these lowly organized creatures.”
As a soil creator, conditioner and preserver, the earthworm has no rivals, the National Geographic Society says. Eats Weight Daily
Tirelessly boring through the ground, an earthworm eats its weight in organic matter and mineral soil every 24 hours. It takes in leaves, grass, stems, dead insects and animals, larvae, and the like along with subsoil.
All of this material passes through the worm’s formidable digestive system, which includes a muscular gizzard where soil is throughly ground. The residue is deposited in the familiar mounds called “castings.” These castings actually are enormously rich topsoil. Compared to the surrounding earth, castings contain five times as much nitrogen, seven times as much phosphorus, eleven times as much potash, and three times as much magnesium-in a form that plants can readily use. More than 1,750,000 earthworms may churn through one acre of rich farmland, producing as much as 40 tons of topsoil every year. Their tunnels aid root growth, allow air to penetrate underground, and improve drainage, thus preventing erosion.
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