Wild Karoo
Giant Earthworms of the Karoo
Jun
This is a time when giant two-metre earthworms rear up out of their burrows and find a road to cross. Startled motorists spot them more often than scientists.
South Africa has the largest earthworm ever found, according to the international Worm Digest digital archives.
A giant worm measuring nearly seven metres (22 feet) was found beside a road near King William’s Town back in 1967.
Australians, who have the much smaller Giant Gippsland Earthworm (only one metre long, on average), devote a whole worm-shaped museum to them. And they’ve put them under protection, because the worms were thought to be vanishing fast because of pesticide use.
No one yet seems too concerned about whether our slimy Karoo Big Boys are also vanishing. Or even to what extent they have added to the still-impressive fertility of the Karoo soils.
Microchaetus skeadi shows a preference for the Karoo and Eastern Cape, and although seldom seen, is listed as of the most interesting inhabitants of the Mountain Zebra National Park near Cradock.
Giant earthworms are preyed upon by giant golden moles and also the odd person seeking fishing bait.
The late Jan Pampoen of Steytlerville would sometimes grab a crowbar, climb on a bicycle and go to the town’s desert-like golf course after rains to look for earthworm mounds and casts.
About half a metre underground, he’d find two, three or four of these big earthworms, all wound together.
He used to sell fishermen wanting to catch barbel or eel in the Gamtoos River. Or to lodge owners who want to show their bug-eyed guests that there’s always something strange in a Karoo neighbourhood…
Pingback: Earthworm Giants and Padloopers | aristonorganic
Would you please contact me as soon as possible – I would be grateful discuss the topic with you. I am the person who gave a name “Proandricus skeadi” and I am working on the taxonomy of the South African earthworms for the last 30 years.
Please give me your mailing address. Thanks
Dr J.D. Plisko
KZ Natal Museum
Pietermaritzburg
3201
Hi we are situated near to Swellendam in the Western Cape, and have found a few of these giant earthworms in our sheep kraal after some rain.
I am interested in earthworms as i have now started to produce compost with earthworms. Are the Karoo earthworms suitable for this practise?
Unfortunately not. They are large and sluggish and probably not suitable for processing compost like the much more energetic red wrigglers.
Pingback: Mountain Zebra National Park | There and Back – Ufudu's Tales
Pingback: Top 10 Slimy Facts About Earthworms – 15 Min News.Com
Please send me your email address to pbroughton@chevron.com, regarding work
I am doing on ancient giant earthworm anatomy
Pingback: Corridor Through the Karoo - Karoo Space
Fantastic and unbelievable !!!!!!!
Pingback: Chipmunk & Earthworm | TechAdmix
Hi, thank you for the interesting read!
We stayed on a farm close to Sundays river in the EC for 2 years and dit not know the giants even existed.
Every time it rained I would notice all the Hadidas would always gather on one low lying plot of land and spend most of the day there. big was my surprise when I saw the worm there for the first time.
At first I called the dogs back in a panic as I thought it was a snake, only to realise it was an earthworm.
I was thinking of keeping a worm farm for worm tea.
Do you think they would be suitable,or do like a more drier environment?
Thanx