Earthworms: Earth’s best friend. We have often called these guys the “token worm”, as this is typically the organism people think of when they hear the word “worm”. Which is quite a lot of power for an earthworm to hold in its (nonexistent) hands. This article will be the first in a series that look at some of the most notable and often-discussed species of earthworms, if only to cover a small portion of this diverse suborder of annelids. We’ll start with some of the basics, and work our way up to the more exciting ones.

“So I went to your website and I was looking for nightcrawlers but didn’t see the nightcrawlers”, states this reader in his submission. “Do you have anything about nightcrawlers?” he asks. To start with, we do indeed have articles on nightcrawlers. We have even written a post solely on these creatures and what they are. Of course, we are still happy to go over them in this article, seeing as our reader was not able to find this one. That said, for future reference, if any of our readers wish to find a specific organism, all they need to do is press the magnifying glass icon in the top right-hand corner of the website’s home page and type in what organism you want to find. Naturally, if nothing comes up, then shoot us a question!

What is a night crawler? This is the basic question we are concerned with, and the answer is straightforward: a night crawler (also written as “nightcrawler”) is simply an earthworm, an extremely common worm we have written about dozens of times. After a brief refresher on exactly what earthworms are, we’ll explain why they are called “night crawlers” (or, again, “nightcrawlers”), and also list some of the other names that earthworms go by. Thus, our treatment of night crawlers and earthworms will be more linguistic than biological.

A little while ago, a reader from New Jersey sent us a query about worms in her back yard. The worms come out at night, especially if it is damp. The backyard worms are described as rather large – the reader estimates that they are six inches (about 15 centimeters) long, and that they are as wide as her little finger. Evidently the worms shy away from light, so the reader has been unable to take a picture of them. The worms don’t wriggle like a common “garden worm,” to use the reader’s unfortunately vague phrase, but instead move like a whip. If the worms are causing any damage, the reader does not mention it, but she does describe them as “truly gross” and says that her neighbors refuse to sit in her backyard because of the worms’ presence. The reader is wondering what her backyard worms are, and also if she should consider taking actions to get rid of them.

When the African nightcrawler eats organic matter such as leaves and grass, the worms’ excrememt, called “castings,” becomes a powerful fertilizer that can be used by gardeners and farmers to help manage crops.

Nightcrawlers, a popular brown fish bait, are now sold as glow worms. The glow-in-the-dark green nightcrawler worms are quite attractive to catfish and other game species.