Your backyard might have a hammerhead worm, for real
Look—I’m gonna be real with you. I thought I'd seen it all when it comes to weird stuff cropping up in St. Louis. From those wild turkeys trying to cross Highway 40 in the middle of rush hour to that time a whole section of South Grand shut down because of a rogue goat. But this? This takes the cake.
St. Louis County Parks and Rec just put out a warning about something called a "hammerhead worm" found right here in Cliff Cave Park down in South County. Now, when I first heard "hammerhead," I thought, "Are we talking about sharks in the Mississippi now?" But nah, these are flatworms, and they look like something straight outta a sci-fi movie. They got this distinctive, shovel-shaped head, kinda like a hammer, and they can get pretty long, up to 15 inches. The big deal is that they're an invasive species, not from around here at all, and they're apparently pretty bad for our local ecosystem. They hunt earthworms, which are crucial for our soil, and they can even carry toxins.
* **What This Means for St. Louis:** * **Keep an eye out:** If you're walking the trails at Cliff Cave Park, or even just in your own yard on the south side near places like Tesson Ferry Road, you might spot one. * **Don't touch 'em:** The parks department says don't handle them with bare hands because of those toxins. * **Don't cut 'em:** This is the wild part—if you cut them up, each piece can grow into a new worm. You gotta bag 'em, freeze 'em, or use salt or vinegar to get rid of them.
I'm telling you, this is wild. We've got enough on our plate in St. Louis without these things creeping around. But that's the Lou — we're still here and we're not leaving, even if we gotta learn how to fight off alien worms.
The crew on the Morning Wire talks about stuff like this every day — catch it live at mornings.live.