Wiggle, Wiggle, FIVE Hearts?! The Amazing Truth About Earthworms

Have you ever picked up a wiggly earthworm after a rainstorm and wondered what makes these squishy creatures so special? Get ready for an amazing discovery—earthworms have FIVE hearts! That’s right! While you have just one heart pumping blood through your body, these tiny garden helpers have FIVE special blood-pumping parts to move blood through their long, stretchy bodies!

Earthworm Superheroes!

Earthworms might look simple, but they’re actually super-powered helpers that make our gardens and parks healthy! Their five hearts aren’t exactly like your heart. Earthworms have five pairs of special tubes called “aortic arches” that work like hearts, squeezing blood through their long bodies.

Imagine if you had to pump blood all the way from your head to your toes using just one heart. Now imagine if you were as long and skinny as a piece of spaghetti! That would be REALLY hard work for just one heart. That’s why earthworms have their five special heart-parts spaced out along their bodies—to make sure blood gets everywhere it needs to go!

More Worm Wonders

Earthworms have even MORE superpowers:

They breathe through their skin! They don’t have noses or lungs like we do.
They can grow back parts of their bodies if they get hurt.
One earthworm can move about 20 pounds of soil in just one year!
They help plants grow better by making tunnels that let air and water reach plant roots.

Why Earthworms Are Garden Heroes

Earthworms are nature’s recyclers and soil-builders! When they wiggle through the ground, they:

Make tunnels that help water reach plant roots
Bring air into the soil so plants can breathe better
Break down dead leaves and plants into food for growing things
Mix up the soil and make it super healthy for plants

Without earthworms, our gardens wouldn’t be nearly as green and beautiful. These little five-hearted friends work day and night underground to help flowers, vegetables, and trees grow big and strong!

Let’s Be Worm Scientists!

Ready to meet some earthworms and see their amazing work firsthand? Here’s an easy experiment you can do at home!

Make Your Own Worm Observatory

What You’ll Need:

A clear plastic bottle (like a 2-liter soda bottle) with the top cut off
Dark construction paper or aluminum foil
Soil from your garden
Sand
Some dead leaves or grass clippings
A spray bottle with water
3-5 earthworms from your garden
Plastic wrap or a lid with air holes
A rubber band

What To Do:

Ask a grown-up to help you cut the top off the plastic bottle.
Wrap dark paper or foil around the outside of the bottle (but you’ll take it off to observe).
Layer soil and sand in the bottle, making stripes like a yummy dessert!
Sprinkle some dead leaves or grass on top.
Spray the soil with water until it’s damp but not soggy.
Gently place your earthworms on top of the soil.
Cover the top with plastic wrap with tiny air holes, secured with a rubber band.
Place your worm home in a cool, dark place.

Worm Watching Time! Every day for a week, carefully remove the paper covering and look at what’s happening inside. Draw pictures of what you see in a special “Worm Diary.”

Do you see tunnels in the soil?
Are the sand and soil layers getting mixed up?
Where are the leaves and grass going?
How do the worms move?

After a week, take your earthworms back to the garden where you found them. They’ve taught you their secrets, and now they can go back to being garden superheroes!

Worm Care Tips

Remember, earthworms are living creatures that need gentle care:

Always wash your hands after handling worms
Keep their home moist but not soaking wet
Never leave worms in direct sunlight
Return them to the garden after your experiment

The next time you see an earthworm after a rainstorm, remember—you’re looking at a tiny superhero with FIVE hearts, working hard to keep our world green and growing! So be kind to these wiggly wonders and thank them for all their important underground work!