Yes, our garbage may be strewn around the yard by raccoons or black bears; sometimes these North Country natives have even been known to break into people’s houses in search of food, although this is rare. Not so rare are the home invasions perpetrated by mice and other rodents. It is true that if there is anything in our gardens whitetail deer don’t care for, they will acquire a taste for it, given time.

Also, we are admittedly feasted upon by blackflies and mosquitoes — and, increasingly, ticks, due to climate change — during the warmer months. Still, mainly because we have so many colder months, we tend to be safe from many species of fauna that endanger residents of southern states as well as those who live in tropical and subtropical climes around the globe.

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Animal problems near and far: A few examples

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This July an American alligator was found in a creek in a residential neighborhood about 22 miles northwest of Dallas. People have been warned not to swim or fish in the area. Alligators are protected as endangered species in Texas.

In Laredo, Texas, also in July, police shot and killed a mountain lion, causing considerable public protest.

As reported in the Austin American-Statesman, “‘Ranchers, trappers, hunters, hippies, outfitters, biologists, and wildlife advocates from across the state all converged to support more respectful management of our cats,’ said Ben Masters, a member of the Texans for Mountain Lions coalition.”

Although many of us have seen mountain lions with our own eyes here in the Adirondacks, according to the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation, “Mountain lions do not have a native, self-sustaining population in New York state. They have been absent from this state since the late 1800s; however, there have been a few isolated sightings. Each sighting involved cougars that are not native to New York.” How the DEC was able to determine the provenance of the mountain lions that were sighted I cannot say. At any rate, mountain lions have posed no problems to Adirondackers the way they have in western states.

Need I mention that we have no native mamba snakes, either black or green, and very few venomous snakes of any kind; no deadly box jellyfish or tunnel spiders, as are found in Australia; no man-eating tigers or poison frogs. And no hippopotamuses, world’s deadliest land animal, said to kill 500 people yearly in Africa. (Oddly enough, hippos are fast runners.)

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Disgusting invasive flatworm

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The invasive hammerhead worm is on the rise in Houston since Hurricane Beryl brought flooding to that region. I am happy to report that so far we in the North Country have not been invaded by this worm, a kind of terrestrial planarian that needs heat and humidity to proliferate. Hammerhead worms are disgusting, and possibly also immortal, according to scientists.

Disgusting, because, like slugs, they use cilia on their creeping sole to glide over a strip of mucus. They are sometimes observed lowering themselves down a string of mucus.

Immortal, because, as scientist T. H. Morgan discovered in the late 1800s, a mere 279th part of a flatworm could regenerate into a new worm within one to two weeks. For this reason gardeners should not chop them up with their shovels in an attempt to kill them. Hammerhead worms also multiply both sexually and asexually.

A hammerhead worm can grow up to 15 inches in length. It is flat and slimy, with a half moon-shaped head. The toxin it secretes to kill its prey (earthworms, slugs, snails and arthropods) is the potent neurotoxin tetrodotoxin, also found in pufferfish, the blue-ringed octopus and rough-skinned newts. It was not known to occur in any terrestrial species before it was found in the hammerhead worm. Luckily, the amount of tetrodotoxin secreted by hammerhead worms is small. Touching one causes skin irritation, but who would want to?

They also carry the parasitic nematode rat lungworm, which causes a disease that affects the brain and spinal cord in humans.

The hammerhead worm’s mouth is at its midsection, and also serves as its anus.

These worms enjoy natural habitats in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas, but have been found as far north as Ontario and Quebec.

It’s August. Have a good week!

(Martha Allen, of Keene Valley, has been writing for the Lake Placid News for over 20 years.)