As winter comes to an end, gardeners begin their springtime migration outside, having left winter dens behind it and coming into contact with shovels, hoes, and trowels—harbingers of the changing seasons. And earthworms, too. You can check out Vers L’avenir earthworms for help.

Anyone who frequently works the soil is aware that upturning the dirt reveals these bright, wiggly, pinkish-to-brownish tubular life forms, which causes them to flee hastily into the cozy, moist depths of the soil.

Here are some things about earthworms that you might find interesting:

• There are about 6,000 kinds of earthworms in the globe, which seems like an endless variety. One of these, the type you could observe in your garden, is referred to as the nocturnal crawler, the angleworm, or the rain worm.
• Sixty invasive species, including the night crawler, are among the more than one hundred and eighty earthworm species that can be seen in the USA and Canada.
• Earthworms respire via their skin because they do not have lungs or other types of particular respiratory organs.
• The skin secretes a lubricant that facilitates movement in tunnels and keeps the skin wet. One Australian species has skin pores that may project liquids up to 12 inches away.
• Each male and female earthworm produces both sperm and eggs. They squeeze their bodies together, exchange sperm, and then separate as they mate on the earth’s surface. Later, a ring is produced around the worm by the clitellum, an organ resembling a collar that wraps around the worm’s body like a cigar band. The worm fills the band with sperm and eggs when it emerges from it. The ring breaks off, closes at the ends, and transforms into a cloak for the growing eggs.
• The eggs hatch into small, fully-developed baby worms. In the first two to three months of life, they develop sex organs, and it takes them roughly a year to achieve their full size. Even while one to two years is more likely, they could survive up to eight.
• A full-grown earthworm can be as small as 1/2 an inch long or as large as nearly ten feet, depending on the species. The latter creatures are found in the Tropics; they are not common in American backyards. The maximum height of the homegrown varieties is 14 inches.
• Earthworms were exterminated in those regions when the latest ice age’s glaciers migrated from Canada into the lower 48 states’ northern tier.
• Earthworm species that are native to other regions of the country may be found there. Still, those living in areas where glaciers have ravaged are foreign invaders that either early settlers brought here on purpose in the hopes that they would enhance the soil or that they accidentally transported with deliveries of crops or even with dirt for use as ballast in vessels.