We just received the following passage from a reader, “Today I put a few worms out on grass because they were in a puddle at the edge of the road and I didn’t want them to get run over or to drown. Then I wondered whether maybe they were aquatic worms that needed to stay in water. They looked like every other worm I’ve seen except a little small. What do you think?”

We are very pleased that our reader considers that safety of worms on a daily basis! However, we do not know how to respond to our reader’s question. First off, we have no idea what these worms look like other than the fact that they resemble all of the other worms she has seen except smaller in size. Depending on the geography and climate, a worm you might see on an every day basis could be quite different. She didn’t tell us the color or the size, other than mentioning they are smaller than most other worms.

There are some worms that are aquatic, however most worms aren’t specifically aquatic; rather they prefer moist environments, like wet soil. Earthworms and millipedes are two examples of creatures that prefer moisture. It is very possible our reader discovered earthworms in the puddle, since they can survive submerged in water and often appear after heavy rains. If these were earthworms, she shouldn’t worry about removing them from the puddle and putting them on the grass. The will either burrow back into the damp soil, or crawl to find another puddle to lounge in.

In conclusion, a reader asked us about the fate of some worms she found in a puddle. We offered her some information about these creatures.

• 
•