![]() ![]() “The toxin itself does not go through skin, but can be harmful if ingested or gets inside the bloodstream somehow,” Bertone says. “Then they slurp up the tissues and bring them into the digestive tracts.” ![]() “It’s an outside-of-their-body digestion,” Raupp says. They eat other fauna on the ground, including roundworms, by excreting a paralyzing toxin. These flatworms can grow well over a foot long. They’re found largely east of the Mississippi, on the west coast from California to the Pacific Northwest, and even Hawaii, says Michael Raupp, professor emeritus of entomology at the University of Maryland. Hammerhead worms have spread to about 30 states. “Hammerhead worms are particularly abundant and common throughout the U.S., but they’re so foreign-looking that people really react to them.” “It’s very visceral for people to hear about hammerhead worms and then see one in yard,” says entomologist Matt Bertone, director of the Plant Disease and Insect Clinic at North Carolina State University. One that can reproduce by splitting itself in two and secretes the same toxin found in pufferfish. The latest invasive creature appearing in backyards across the United States is a strange-looking worm. ![]()
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