How did Noah deal with worms?

In an unrelated thread Pink Sasquatch noted that the majority of life on earth reproduces asexualy, got me thinking...What did Noah do about annalids, nematodes, tapeworms, et al. ? Most worms aint gonna survive under thousands of feet of watter. Many of them live in only certain environments. Earthworms are very crussial to maintaining healthy soil and we all know they can't live under water. Ever seen what happens when it rains just a little? Little guys are crawlin all over the place.Furthermore most worms are asexual as far as I know, Noah couldn't possibly have gatherd a male and female of these. So what did he do?Finally, many worms are parasitic. Tapeworms, liver flukes, heart worm, etc. How did Noah bring these along? Did someone have to voluntaraly infect themselves?

Ummm....Noahs Ark and VermicultureOr,How did Noah deal with wormsTake your pick{"How did Noah deal with worms?" is new title - AM}This message has been edited by Adminnemooseus, 08-04-2004 10:31 PM

whatever,I think I should let you know a bit about earthworms.Earthworms live underground by pushing dirt thrugh their digestive system, filtering out the nutrients, and moving on. They are simple creatures and though they spend most of their time underground they need oxygen to live. Earthworms will not survive in direct sunlight, or in aquatic conditions since there is not enugh oxygen to absobe.Anyway, Earthworms have a wide range of teritory, and they cover alot of ground in a day. Lots of soil is processed and they are esential to a healthy garden since they ventilate the ground and allow it to be permiated by rainfall.To suggest that enugh soil was floating on the surface to both:a) shelter them from the sun
b) keep them fed and out of waterlogged conditionsWould mean that you would litteraly have a huge chunck of dry earth floating on the surface. Like some kind of floating lawn.I don't belive this is a possibility.

Earthworms like moisture, yes, but not mud. Furthermore, could the conditions you suggest have held up for over a year?Besides, earthworms live in the top 6" of soil. That's their ideal habitat. They burrow all over the place in this soil and that's how they get by.Was there at last six inches worth of topsoil floating on the surface of the ocean during Noahs time?

What part of the name EARTH-Worm don't you get?They live on soil, not mud. They need soil as shelter as well as food. Their digestive system is made to process soil, filter out nutrients, and collect grit in a crop (much like birds do). They need soil by definition!Loose debris floating on the ocean surface just isn't going to cut it. You need a nice block of at least 6" of topsoil to support a good amount of earthworms. From: http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/zoo00/zoo00508.htm The eggs are laid above the ground, only incubate for a few months, and then spawn 10-15 baby worms. How could these eggs survive more than a year submerged?Another issue is PH. Earthworms are delicate creatures and require a stable chemical environment as well. Slight variation in Soil PH can kill earthworms. How are they going to survive in salt water satturated debris?This message has been edited by Yaro, 08-05-2004 11:28 AM

Ya Tapeworms maybe, but waht about the other parsites?

errp... hehehI meant parasitic worms.Many parasitic worms cause much more than a little discomfort and the occasional freaky BM. Here are a few parasitic worms that Noah and co. had to be carrying around:Wuchereria bancroft - elephantiasisFlukes - many of which can cause failure of major organs such as liver flukesTaenia solium - the prok tapeworm (though not only found in pork). A parasite that when ingested has a bad habit of having its tiny babys invade the bloodstream. this can cause them to mature in the heart where they can cause heart-attacks by blocking arteries, Lungs, causing Lung colapse, or even in the brain causing strokes.Where Noah carrying these things along with them?Edited: I don't think baby worms are considered larva. They hatch from eggs and grow from there. There is no metamorphasis from an intermediary stage.This message has been edited by Yaro, 08-05-2004 01:45 PM

Well, Can you explain how a raft of topsoil driftend on the ocean for a whole year?Earthworms will not survive in loose, floating, debris. Let alone debris that are saturated in Salt Watter.Even if the rain were freashwatter, the vast majority of the water on earth (oceans) are salt watter. Unfortunetly duping a ton of rain on the world would invariably mix the freshwater and saltwater to the point where there was only salt watter.This water would kill the earthworms.

I looked into this. There are three major species of earthworms which are grouped into three distinct classes: from: http://users.dragnet.com.au/~lindah/awga/behav.htmlI suppose I am more concerned with the EPIGENIC variety. These don't live under watter at all and by definition live on the looser, nutrient rich, topsoil.This message has been edited by Yaro, 08-06-2004 02:07 PM

I googled this quote from another fourm: I coroborated the post by finding a site hosted at a university with similar data. Earthworms indeed can live under fresh water, however from what little I could find Earthworms will die when exposed to to much salt or acidity.All the refrences I could find about earthworms in water were earthworms in lakebeds and other freshwater sources.There is one species of worm that is found in the salt water oceans called the salt water bloodworm.In any case, I conceed that Earthworms could have survived underwater in shallow freshwater conditions, in well oxyginated waters.However, I don't think the "soil raft hypothesis" holds any watter Anyway, whatever, you were right on this point. But I would still contend that once the rain and ocean mixed there would be too much salt for the worms to survive.

hehe, wow, we posted at the same time. Read above post.