Earthworms

Nature-writer Mary Leister of Sykesville says, "Recycling is not a dirty word."Indeed, she believes conserving natural resources is acritical issue if our planet is to survive. At Piney Run Nature Center on Earth Day, Leister shared with her audience the story of the moment she realized she was her planet's keeper.Leister recounted how, as she drove along the Payette River in Idaho one night in 1962, she identified from the myriad stars above thebright planets of Venus and Mars. In that instant, she also became aware of the fact that Earth, too, hung in space, that it moved in mysterious orbits.

At last, there's a place where a lower life form can get some respect: At the Columbus Center through tomorrow, scientists are celebrating the wonders of all things wormy.Worms with feet. Lovely worms with silky blond hair. Toxin-tipped worms that stun their prey. Worms as long as a dining room table."This is giving me chills," said 10-year-old Charles Holmes, a member of the Maryland Boys & Girls Club at the Flag House Courts housing complex, when a researcher plunged his hand into a jar of preservative alcohol and fished out 6-foot-long "Superworm," found at the Caribbean island of St. Lucia.

I have worms in my yard and would like to get rid of them. In the spring, when it's wet, they churn up the surface and make the ground soft, though the grass does grow. I have tried all kinds of chemicals at different times (diazinon, sevin, malathion), but nothing works. I thought about tearing up the yard and putting in new topsoil, but if I don't dig deep enough, I'm afraid they'll still be in the ground. Is there anything that will kill them? Earthworms are unique benefactors of soil, moving nutrients up to where they are available to plants, breaking down compounds and aerating.

1. Wildlife Migration Fly the friendly skies with Journey North: A Global Study of Wildlife Migration at www.learner.org / jnorth / . Find out how you can help track many species' migration north for the summer. See where some magnificent bald eagles have been sighted this spring, and discover how a New York biologist raised the number of nesting eagles from two to more than 100. Also, check out the migration patterns of robins, manatees and even humpback whales. Watch for the budding signs of spring in tulips, frogs, earthworms and maple sugaring.

SOME FOLKS spend spring weekends honing their abs, hardening their derrieres or building up their biceps. As for me, lately I have been working on upping my humus. Ever since my test results came back from the lab, I have been following the advice offered by the soil savants at the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension Service. After studying a dirt sample I sent them, they told me to add more organic matter to my garden plot, such as humus, the end product of decomposed organic matter.

They're slimy, wiggly and eat garbage. Children love them, and so do gardeners. They're worms, squirmy little composters that turn table scraps into rich fertilizer.This week, kindergartner Scotty Horigan got a close look at these industrious critters -- maybe a little too close for his taste."They feel squiggly, like spit," said the Ellicott City 6-year-old, gingerly dropping a bunch of dirt-covered worms into a cut-off plastic soda bottle to make his very own home composter as part of a program sponsored by state and county agricultural officials.

My compost pile has now turned to rich black dirt and I was ready to put it into my garden, but I noticed reddish-brown bugs throughout that look like cockroaches. Is it safe to use? Should I spray it with something? You probably see a type of beetle. There are some outdoor species of cockroaches that do not breed or survive indoors. Many types of soil invertebrates like earthworms, grubs, maggots, ants and beetles help break down the materials in compost piles. When the compost is spread, these insects usually disperse and are not a problem.

Army officials have unveiled a plan to reduce environmental threats from a chemical weapons burning site at Aberdeen Proving Ground by excavating "hot spots" of contamination and covering the area with dirt.The proposal, which has the tentative backing of state environmental officials, seeks to reduce the effects of heavy metals contamination at the tip of the proving ground's Edgewood Area peninsula.A blanket of soil at least two feet deep would be spread over nine acres of the "burn pits" area on a site known as J Field.

When you know the answers to these questions, go to http://www.4Kids.org/detectives/What does Herman love to eat at the Worm Deli?Who is in Miko's secret society at Purple Moon?Where in your brain does most of the thought take place?(Go to http://www.brainpop.com/indexgen.asp tofind out.)GET WIGGLYWorm is the word at The Adventures of Herman, the Net site dedicated to our favorite creepy-crawlers. Get a worm's-eye view at http://www.urbanext.uiuc. edu/worms/index.html. Once here, you'll get the inside scoop on a worm's eating habits, its anatomy and its place on the food chain.

For the lover of fine food, this weekend features cuisine from the Philippines on Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. at the New Windsor Service Center.A buffet meal with chicken asparagus soup, adobong baboy (marinated pork adobo), rellenong (baked stuffed chicken), Philippine fried rice, guisadong sitao (yardlong green beans), mais guisado (sauteed corn), dipping sauces, putong puti (rice muffins) and pineapple-lemon punch will be served in the Conference Center.Cost of the meal is $8 per person, $5 for children 6 and under.