Worms eat everything in their path

"What do worms eat?"

Toby Bahrmasel, 6, a first-grader at Douglas MacArthur Elementary School in Hoffman Estates, asked, "What do worms eat?"

Worms are incredibly important. Just by living in the soil, they make plants healthier and stronger.

"One of the best ways to tell if you have healthy soil in your garden is to look for worms," said Deb Crockett, program manager at Angelic Organics Learning Center, a partner program with Angelic Organics farm in Caledonia. "One square foot of healthy garden soil should have at least 10 worms in the top 6 inches."

Vegetables like tomatoes, beets, peppers, eggplant, spinach, lettuce and potatoes are harvested at the 155-acre farm. People can buy shares in the farm which means each week they receive a box of fresh farm vegetables. The learning center offers classes with locations in Caledonia and Chicago and offers summer camp programs at the Caledonia location.

Worms live in burrows that reach far below the earth's surface ­- sometimes as deep as 18 feet. "By digging tunnels through the soil, they help create holes that will bring air and water to the roots of plants. The loosened soil that they create makes it easier for roots to grow through the soil," Crockett said.

Worms move their segmented bodies using tiny bristles that branch from each segment. "In winter, worms will burrow down into the soil to avoid freezing," she said.

Worms eat as they burrow. Their diet is pretty much made up of anything that's in their way, like decaying and fresh plants, bacteria, fungi and the decomposing remains of animals.

"When worms eat old plants, they, together with the tiny bacteria that live in their guts, break down the plants and return the nutrients to the soil," Crockett said.

What comes out in the end is key to keeping plants healthy. "Worms are important for two reasons - they dig and they poop," Crockett said.

Worm poop is a terrific natural fertilizer. The digested worm food comes out as the perfect nutrition for plants. Farmers call worm poop "castings" and sell castings to use as fertilizer on house and garden plants.

If you give a worm your fruit and vegetable leftovers, they'll munch through the plant matter and give you back great fertilizer called compost. Angelic Organics Learning Center offers worm composting classes. See www.learngrowconnect.org for registration information.

Worms are food to other animals like birds, foxes, snakes, beetles, leeches, slugs, moles and skunks. Fish love worms, too, as every fisherman knows.

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Check these out

The Schaumburg Township District Library suggests these titles on worms:

• "Diary of a Worm," by Doreen Cronin

• "Nematodes, Leeches and other Worms," by Steve Parker

• "Worms," by Jen Green

• "Worms," by Peter Murray

• "Worms," by Theresa Greenaway