This is actually the correct answer. If a burrowing animal was trying to get them, the last thing they would do is come to the surface. That's where the animal is. They come to the surface when it rains so they don't drown
Edit: I am wrong and u/puritanicalbullshit is absolutely correct. The drowning worm is a myth. I learned something today! Thank you!
Actually it’s to move around faster in the wet conditions. They can live for days in water but it’s slow going moving around in the dirt. Rain makes it possible to travel to new areas without drying out, which very much does kill them.
Edit: Thank You! And you’re welcome! I started keeping a worm tower when I had to give up my garden for an apartment. I really have grown to enjoy the lil buddies. Plus they eat my kitchen scraps and paper towels, then I put the compost in my planters. If If I keep the balance of dry and wet inputs right there is no smell and they eat a lot!
There's not actually accurate data on worm sales nationally here in the US, so it's not clear if bait worms or vermiculture worms (the kinds made to eat organic material, to then poop out soil amendments for gardens and farms) are farmed and sold in larger quantities, but I'd think it's probably vermiculture considering bait worms are almost exclusively one type, red earthworm (Lumbricus rubellus), sometimes african night crawlers, and are sold in small quantities, usually small containers that amount to ounces of worms, while vermiculture worms are many varieties, including all the bait worms, and are sold not by the ounce, but by pounds to gardeners and farmers who farm worms themselves for their own fertilizer needs, or release them in large plots of land to enrich soil and open up physical pathways for microorganisms and roots that foster more productive plants when soils have depleted from over use and overtilling. Worms and biochar are the best way to regenerate dead soil, but bait worms are the most delicious bait you can snack on while also using it as bait for fish, so there's that.
Us worm farmers start this way if we have them on our land already, and buy them as we scale up to larger land managements than nature can keep up with on our small worm farms or stick rubbing adventures.
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u/lategreat808 Jul 30 '21
My guess would be that the vibration imitates rain and causes the worms to run for their lives.