Kid’s Activity Sheets – Worm composting

There are approximately 2,700 different kinds of earthworms. An earthworm can grow only so long. A well-fed adult will depend on what kind of worm it is, how many segments it has, how old it is and how well fed it is. An Lumbricus terrestris will be from 90-300 millimeters long. Worms are cold-blooded animals. A worm has no arms, legs or eyes. If a worm’s skin dries out, it will die. Worms live where there is food, moisture, oxygen and a favourable temperature. If they don’t have these things, they go somewhere else. The largest earthworm ever found was in South Africa and measured 22 feet from its nose to the tip of its tail. Worms tunnel deeply in the soil and bring subsoil closer to the surface mixing it with the topsoil. Slime, a secretion of earthworms, contains nitrogen. Nitrogen is an important nutrient for plants. The sticky slime helps to hold clusters of soil particles together in formations called aggregates.