A long, flat worm with a shovel-shaped head gliding across your patio is not a hallucination — it is a hammerhead worm, one of the world’s most unusual invasive species. Originally from Southeast Asia, these predatory flatworms are now appearing in gardens across multiple continents. While they pose no direct danger to humans, their impact on local ecosystems is a growing concern for scientists and gardeners alike.
Hammerhead worms belong to the genus Bipalium, a group of terrestrial flatworms whose name derives from the distinctive wide, flattened head that closely resembles the shape of a hammerhead…
