{"id":43109,"date":"2025-11-10T11:47:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T11:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/43109\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T11:47:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T11:47:12","slug":"toxic-hammerhead-worm-is-invading-texas-triggering-warnings-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/43109\/","title":{"rendered":"Toxic ‘Hammerhead Worm’ Is Invading Texas, Triggering Warnings : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Don’t kill it, don’t squish it, don’t cut it up,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller warned<\/a> residents via NBC as a toxic flatworm spreads across North Texas.<\/p>\n

While this invasive species has been in the US for years, the state’s fatally heavy rains<\/a>, fueled by climate change<\/a>, are enabling the hammerhead flatworm (Bipalium kewense<\/a>) to thrive and spread.<\/p>\n

This brown and black-striped, flattened land planarian<\/a> with a distinctive half-moon-shaped head can reach lengths of up to 40 cm (15.7 inches). Like many flatworm species, it can regenerate a whole new worm<\/a> from slices of itself<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Decapitating the worm will only help it multiply.<\/p>\n

Related: Rare Two-Headed Flatworms Produce Topsy-Turvy Offspring, Scientists Discover<\/a><\/p>\n

“Tear it in half, now you’ve got two worms,” Miller told<\/a> NBC’s Keenan Willard.<\/p>\n

Instead, authorities advise<\/a> not to touch the flatworms with bare hands, but where it’s safe, to place the worms in a bag and freeze them for 48 hours. They’re also asking people to report sightings of the flatworms to the Texas Invasive Species Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"ToxicA species of hammerhead flatworm on the move. (Placebo365\/Creatas Videa\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Native to Southeast Asia, these terrestrial predators<\/a> thrive in hot, humid environments, where they eat snails and earthworms.<\/p>\n

Their diet makes greenhouses ideal homes, allowing the flatworm to often spread<\/a> through gardening activities and the horticultural industry.<\/p>\n

Hammerhead flatworms can be found in leaf litter, moist mulch, and soil.<\/p>\n

\"Win<\/a><\/p>\n

“Some, but not all species of Bipalium, produce a neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin in their mucus,” Virginia Tech entomologist Theresa Dellinger said<\/a> in 2023, explaining they don’t bite or sting.<\/p>\n

“The purpose of it is to subdue their prey.”<\/p>\n

The sodium-channel blocke<\/a>r, which is also found in pufferfish, can, however, irritate the skin and mucus membranes of humans and pets.<\/p>\n

\"SlimyHammerhead flatworm, Bipalium kewense. (Pierre Gros\/Justine et al., Biodiversity and Conservation, 2018<\/a>)<\/p>\n

As they’re an invasive species, hammerhead flatworms have no natural predators in the US. When conditions are favorable, flatworm numbers can grow out of control, leading them to deplete the earthworms that play a major role in keeping soils healthy.<\/p>\n

“Other animals rarely devour land planarians, since surface secretions appear distasteful, if not toxic,” University of Florida nematologists explained<\/a> in 2004. “Because of their cannibalistic habit, land planarians may be their own worst enemy.”<\/p>\n

The recent spread is one of many examples of climate change driving the proliferation of invasive species<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“Don’t kill it, don’t squish it, don’t cut it up,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller warned residents via…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[25610,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-43109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-msft-content","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}