Much as I love nature — and I do! Especially this time of year, in the spring — well, mud season — after a long, long winter — no one can say that I do not rejoice in nature. We all do. And yet, some things, natural though they may be, are horrifying.

Last year in this column I wrote about the venomous hammerhead flatworm. Amidst the destruction caused by the landfall of Hurricane Beryl in Matagorda County, Texas, last July, these worms were somehow introduced along the Gulf of Mexico, or America. It was like a Biblical plague.

Also known as a broadhead planarian, the worm can grow up to 3 feet long. It does not bite or sting, but the slime on its skin contains tetrodotoxin, the same neurotoxin that makes pufferfish so poisonous.

How a storm could deliver an infestation of invasive worms is beyond me, but I felt — selfishly — relieved to read that these horrid planaria thrive in hot and humid environments. Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas — well, bless your hearts! This Yankee is sorry for you all, but oh well.

Now I learn that venomous hammerhead worms were found in Kitchener, Ontario, a year ago. Ontario gets cold! While Canada is not yet a state, Ontario is too close for comfort.

Speaking of slime, the hagfish has often been called the most disgusting animal in the sea, and in fact the whole world.

They look like eels and are quite ugly, which I guess is why they’re called hagfish.

The reason the hagfish has survived for millions of years, and also the reason it is so disgusting, is that it produces huge amounts of slime from 100 glands that run along its sides. When sharks or other fish attack, this slime is released, clogging their gills and sometimes killing them. Some Asian foodies, particularly South Koreans, like to eat hagfish. They probably consider them a delicacy.

And now these weird, newly discovered Hawaiian caterpillars — they’re even stranger than tomato hornworms! If you have escaped knowing tomato hornworms, you don’t know how lucky you are. It has been too cold for them here. But mark my words, they’re coming. Just like the ticks we didn’t use to have 30 years ago because it was too cold for them, before we warmed from climate zone 3 to climate zone 4b. Deer ticks that carry not only Lyme disease, but also anaplasmosis, babesiosis, Borrelia miyamotoi disease, and Powassan virus disease. (Note to self: Is this true? Check.)

OK, yes, it is true. When you get information from artificial intelligence (AI) while Googling, it is always best to verify it by consulting solid, institutional sources that are probably being defunded by DOGE even as I type. Lyme is the easiest tick-borne disease to remember the name of. No, Anaplasmosis is not the name of some old school friend of your sister’s, and babesiosis is not a pet name Gen Xers call their significant others.

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), babesiosis is caused by tiny parasites that attack red blood cells. Babesiosis can be fulminant, meaning severe or sudden in onset. I really like the word fulminant.

Speaking of artificial intelligence — I recently read that overuse of M dashes is a sure sign that an author is using AI in order to plagiarise. Not me, though! I have been overusing the M dash long before AI was a thing.

A bizarre moth caterpillar was just discovered by University of Hawaii scientists on the island of Oahu, even though the scientists have somehow determined it has been in existence for 6 million years, give or take. It is not only carnivorous, a rarity among caterpillars, but also cannibalistic, living in spider webs and scavenging leftovers. According to an April 27 release by the UH at Manoa, “The caterpillar, a member of the … genus Hyposmocoma, has been named the “bone collector” caterpillar due to its macabre habit of adding insect body parts into its silken, portable case. Researchers have observed these caterpillars measuring and attaching body parts such as fly wings, weevil heads and earwig abdomens to their cases.”

Enjoy Mud Season, and have a good week!

(Martha Allen, of Keene Valley, has been writing for the News since 1996.)