Why are earthworms good friends of plants?

Earthworms are a common terrestrial annelids, which live in the soil and come out at night. They feed on livestock manure and organic waste, swallow it with soil, and also eat plant leaves and other debris. Earthworms can loosen soil, improve soil, improve fertility and promote agricultural production. The movement and excrement of earthworms are very beneficial to improve soil quality, which can maintain good permeability and health of soil and play an important role in agriculture. A healthy earthworm can turn over 20-40 tons of soil on an acre of land every year. Earthworms can loosen soil, increase soil organic matter, improve soil structure, promote acidic or alkaline soil to become neutral soil, increase effective components such as phosphorus, and make soil suitable for crop growth. Earthworms are rich in protein, which can be used as feed for livestock, poultry and aquaculture to increase the yield. Earthworms also occupy a certain position in pharmacology. Common Chinese herbal medicines have antipyretic, spasmolytic, activating collaterals, relieving asthma, lowering blood pressure and inducing diuresis. Earthworms can secrete a special enzyme, which can decompose protein, fat and lignocellulose, so leaves, straws, livestock manure, domestic garbage, activated sludge and scraps from paper and food industries can all be their food. Earthworms can eliminate environmental pollution to a certain extent. Therefore, many countries have established earthworm breeding factories and called them "environmental purification devices".

Because earthworms can absorb trace metals such as mercury, lead and cadmium in soil, the accumulation of these metal elements in earthworms is 10 times that in vitro. Therefore, some scientists believe that earthworms can be used as monitoring animals for soil heavy metal pollution. Earthworms feed on animal and plant residues in the soil, and often drill holes in the ground to loosen the soil, so that water and fertilizer can easily enter, and improving soil fertility is beneficial to plant growth. Earthworms can be used as feed for poultry and are the favorite "meat" food for chickens and ducks. Earthworms are also bait for various waters, fish and climate suitable for freshwater fishing. But earthworms have a harmful side. There is a parasite that is parasitic on pigs-pig pulmonary filariasis is parasitic on earthworms for a period of time during the growth and development of its larvae. Therefore, in areas where pig pulmonary filariasis is prevalent, earthworms provide convenient conditions for the reproduction of this parasite. Live earthworms are easy to spread diseases and can transmit tapeworms and asthma to pigs. It can spread tracheal mating nematodiasis, capillary nematodiasis, heteronematodiasis and wedge taeniasis to poultry. Earthworms are decomposers. For human beings, they can decompose organic wastes produced by human beings and turn them into inorganic substances for plants to use. So if there are earthworms in the yard, vegetables or flowers will grow better. ...

At the same time, human activities will provide earthworms with certain energy sources, such as food. However, human pollution of soil and water will do great harm to the living environment of earthworms and threaten their lives. Earthworms can also be used as feed, food and medicinal materials, which is of great benefit to human beings. Except stone, brick, glass, metal, rubber, etc., all other rotting organic wastes and domestic garbage can be digested by it and converted into organic fertilizer. The digestive system of earthworms is amazing. It can secrete an enzyme that decomposes wood fibers, so some weeds, sawdust, bones and fishbones, eggshell skins, rags and other pollutants have become delicious in their mouths. According to experiments, 654.38 billion earthworms can swallow 40 tons of garbage a day. If you deal with the garbage of an ordinary family, it is enough to raise 2000 earthworms. Earthworms can be described as loyal "environmental guardians". People are more and more aware of the importance of earthworm in agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry production and its special role in environmental protection. According to the survey, there are about1.501.800 thousand earthworms per hectare in China.

Due to the digging and omnivorous nature of earthworms, the excrement of earthworms can reach tens to hundreds of tons per hectare of land every year. Earthworm manure rich in humus is an excellent fertilizer for plant growth. Earthworms can also improve the soil, accelerate the decomposition of organic matter in the soil and maintain the ecological balance of the soil. In addition, people pay more and more attention to earthworm in treating organic waste in garbage, degrading pollutants in the environment and providing a new source of protein for entering this field. Earthworms have many benefits to human beings. First, earthworms move in the soil, which makes the soil loose, and air and water can penetrate into the soil more, which is beneficial to plant growth and can improve the soil. Second, earthworms can improve soil fertility. Rotten organic matter and a large number of soil particles eaten by earthworms are digested to form feces, which are rich in nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Thirdly, earthworm contains a lot of protein and fat, which has high nutritional value and is an excellent feed and food in protein. Fourthly, the efficiency of using earthworms to treat organic waste is very high. For example, 1 100 million earthworms can swallow 40 tons of organic waste a day ... So earthworms have many benefits for human beings, so China and many countries in the world are vigorously developing the utilization and breeding of earthworms.