Challenge Accepted

For my first posting I’m going to do something a bit risky, and possibly idiotic.  I’m going to try my hand at a challenge.  While I was constructing an idea of what type of website I wanted to create, and what subjects I thought would be good to discuss, a friend of mine challenged me to write about worms.  ”Honestly!  If you can write about worms, you can write about anything!”  So, for my first attempt at creating an enthralling and interactive site, I’m going to give two cents on a random member of the non-anthropod invertebrate community.  This one’s for you, Savannah.

Unless you love fishing, gardening, or invertebrate zoology, you likely couldn’t care less about what’s coming.  I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re actually disgusted by the very thought of Eisenia Fetida or Lumbricus Rebellus.  Rather than making this a long, boring report on the specific science of worm biology and life, which the nerd in me would outrageously enjoy doing, let’s make this fun.  Fun fact #1:  There’s over 2,700 different types of worms, which is pretty diverse for something without eyes or appendages.  To put into perspective how diverse this population is, Charles Darwin spent 39 years studying earthworms – yes, 39.  Next time you want to complain about a paper you have to write or a speech you have to give, be thankful it’s not on helminthological mating habits.

Pragmatically, earthworms are great for gardening.  Interested in having your own herb and pepper garden?  Fantastic! Grab a few worms, specifically one of the two types referred to in the latin above, and you’ll have much healthier soil with much less effort.  Earthworms, not all, but most, are composting machines.  Anything compostable that enters your soil or fertilizer becomes food for these squirming mongrels.  This food allows them to secrete their slime, which contains nitrogen, a vital nutrient for healthy plant growth.  On top of this, by tunneling, worms till the earth, mixing the subsoil with the topsoil.  In turn, this all means less maintenance for a healthier garden.  If you decide to try this, I suggest obtaining the European Earthworm (Lumbricus Rebellus), as they handle cold climates better than most, meaning you can have those fresh ingredients year-round, depending on the plant itself, of course.

For those of you who didn’t leave the page after discovering the topic, I’m sure some of you are reading this expecting some discussion of parasitic worms, maybe even with a frightening picture or two.  Trust me, the last image I want in my head is Pinworms feeding off E. coli inside of me or Trichinella Spirallis traveling through my bloodstream or Lymphatic Filariae causing genital elephantiasis, so I’m not going to discuss parasitic worms.  I’ll leave that for your own research.

If you’ve made it down to this part of the article, I guess it wasn’t too eccentric of a topic to start with, and I’m thankful for your attention span.  I’m hoping to release an article a week from now to the end of the year.  To do so, and to do it well, I’ll need feedback and ideas from as many people as I can get.  Help me. Please.  Give the link a share on social media, make a comment below, send it around the office, subscribe to this site, refer a friend – it would mean far more to me than you can imagine.  I could not be more appreciative of any and all advice and support.

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Kenneth D. Burke

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