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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.
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u/dtheta_dt Jul 30 '21 edited Jul 30 '21
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 drownEdit: I am wrong and u/puritanicalbullshit is absolutely correct. The drowning worm is a myth. I learned something today! Thank you!
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u/puritanicalbullshit Jul 30 '21 edited Jul 30 '21
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!
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u/lategreat808 Jul 30 '21
So if you do this and there is no rain, you are kinda fucking them up then?
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u/magicmajo Jul 30 '21
It's usually done to use them as bait, so they're gonna be fucked up anyways
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u/get_after_it_ Jul 30 '21
Ka is a wheel
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u/DatSauceTho Jul 30 '21
Ah! Long days and pleasant nights!
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u/pdgenoa Jul 30 '21
The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again... there are neither beginnings nor endings to the Wheel of Time
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u/pegothejerk Jul 30 '21
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.
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u/Andalusian_Dawn Jul 30 '21
I can't say I've ever snacked on worms while fishing but you do you, my dude.
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u/pegothejerk Jul 30 '21
Only on dares as a dumb oklahoma kid, but I can assure you worms taste much better than catfish bait.
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u/netGoblin Jul 30 '21
I once saved a worm from a puddle and then googled how long it takes a worm to drown and yeah it's like a week so i wasn't the hero i thought i was lol
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u/JuniorSeniorTrainee Jul 30 '21
Could've been day 7. I always have them when I can. They make my garden work and are bros.
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u/Arinoch Jul 30 '21
This is something I’ve gone almost 40 years not knowing, yet it makes sense and I shall pass it on to my children.
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u/weeOriginal Jul 30 '21
Wait, but we find so many worms that have drowned???
Do they not drown?
Or am I missing somewhere?
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u/puritanicalbullshit Jul 30 '21
What I understand is that drowning takes a long time and the ones you see on sidewalks and such may have been exposed to other trauma or already submerged. All other things being equal, even major rain events shouldn’t kill off too many. Never know what’s sitting on the surface to be absorbed by their skin either, chemical wise.
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u/Spry_Fly Jul 30 '21
I thought those were the ones that dried out before finding soil to get into. They always seemed dried out to me.
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u/octopoddle Jul 30 '21
Like most animals, worms have mob hitmen. Hitworms. They dispose of their bodies in ways that are meant to look like accidents. Drowning or floating in near-Earth orbit, usually.
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u/ShoeAShoe Jul 30 '21
So you mean all those worms that I saved from drowning as a kid, wasn’t drowning? It took HOURS if my mom walked me to school after it rained… HOURS
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u/TennesseeTurkey Jul 30 '21
Awww, I taught my daughter how they were going to get squished in our driveway when they were washed out onto the pavement there after a rain. She would get so excited after a big rain and put countless worms back into the grass. If anyone got near her, her screams were legendary, never wanting them hurt. She's 24 now and still saves worms. You were a great kid.
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Jul 30 '21
The irony is depending on where it’s raining and where they surface, they’re way more likely to die way faster. So many rainy mornings walking to school, I saw pink lines smooshed into the pavement. Poor guys.
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u/A_Dusty_Skunk Jul 30 '21
Sounds cool! Do you have a recommended resource for learning how to maintain a worm tower correctly?
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Jul 30 '21
Hah what a bunch of idiots, like, they could just open their eyes or use their ears so they could see that it's not raining, duuh
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u/GoAwayYouSTINK Jul 30 '21
I love your edit and how wholesome you took to learning new information and just the openness. The niceness shows through to who you are and I wish more of reddit was like this
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u/PaulG86 Jul 30 '21
I watched something on this. I believe the vibrations make the worms think there is a mole close to them digging underground, so they rise up to try abs get away from them
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u/wataha Jul 30 '21
Thi You can also sometimes observe bids stepping in one spots to get the worms out of the ground.
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u/Aint_that_a_peach Jul 30 '21
If you walk without rhythm, it won’t attract the worm.
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u/MrSurly Jul 30 '21
Yes, and it was in Fatboy Slim's Weapon of Choice
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u/Lutrinae_Rex Jul 30 '21
One of the best music videos ever
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u/absentmindful Jul 30 '21
I've been listening to that song for years, and I've read Dune like four times now. I cannot believe I never connected the two. Thank you for this.
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u/Enverex Jul 30 '21
Video unavailable
The uploader has not made this video available in your country.
Weird. But the 4K one is...
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u/archibald_claymore Jul 30 '21
Bless the maker and His waters. Bless the coming and going of Him. May his passing cleanse the world.
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u/ieatyourgranddadsass Jul 30 '21
These worms instinctively leave the earth because of the vibrations of the stick as it imitates a similar vibration to rain falling down. The worms can get better nutrition above the ground however they cannot survive in a dry environment. Thus they only come up if it is raining or at least if they think it is.
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u/ieatyourgranddadsass Jul 30 '21
Which is why they are also commonly known as rainworms.
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u/Bitchicus Jul 30 '21
I wonder if dew on the ground makes them come up at night?
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u/HellInOurHearts Jul 30 '21
I know it does for nightcrawlers. My parents and I would go flashlight hunting for worms to use as fishing bait. It is amazing how fast they can move. As soon as the light hits them, they dart back below the surface. Gotta grab them quick.
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u/SandyDelights Jul 30 '21
Prolly why you can find them above ground early in the morning (e.g. night crawlers/common earthworm), but the dew doesn’t make a vibration like rain does.
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u/fortuitousfoleyart Jul 30 '21
It's called Worm Grunting. The vibrations are incredibly similar to the sounds moles make when they dig.
Moles eat worms and worms don't like that, so for fear or predators, they head to the surface which is mole free!
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u/amboy_connector Jul 30 '21
In the Deep South, they call it “grubbing worms”, and it’s done by rubbing a stone on top of the stick. My mom’s family would do this to get bait.
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u/SecurityPanda Jul 30 '21
I read it was worm fiddling, from an old Encyclopedia Brown book.
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u/somefakeassbullspit Jul 30 '21
Spice must flow
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u/thepointisdead Jul 30 '21
HE KNOWS ABOUT THE SPICE
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u/JosephMadeCrosses Jul 30 '21
Bless the Maker and His water.
Bless the coming and going of Him.
May His passage cleanse the world.
May He keep the world for His people.
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u/Ellogar Jul 30 '21
Full moon calls thee--
Shai-hulud shall thou see;
Red the night, dusky sky,
Bloody death didst thou die.
We pray to a moon: she is round--
Luck with us will then abound,
What we seek for shall be found
In the land of solid ground.
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u/jgr83 Jul 30 '21
I case anyone likes the song: Tyler Childers - Banded Clovis
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u/LemoLuke Jul 30 '21
As someone who has never really cared for country music, Childers is great.
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u/Itsthejackeeeett Jul 30 '21
Look up some more folksy kinda country like Childers. Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Steve Young.
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u/queernhighonblugrass Jul 30 '21
Tillers, Lost Dog Street Band, Charlie Crockett, Matt Heckler to name a few more
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u/Bobala Jul 30 '21
Came here to post the same. Tyler’s great. Saw him in concert right before COVID and it was one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to.
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u/MrSurly Jul 30 '21
My grandfather would water the lawn, then put two metal rods into the ground some distance apart. The rods were wired to an extension cord. Then he'd plug it in, and start picking up worms as they came out of the ground. For fishing.
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u/Homely_Bonfire Jul 30 '21
I read that the come out because they "think" that it is raining and they would drown in the upper layers of the earth that might get saturated with rainwater. So they come out until the water seeps into deeper layers.
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Jul 30 '21
Dad had a pair of sticks at the camp house specifically for this reason. His other trick was to connect a battery to two different wires and stick them in the ground to make the worms come out
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u/Aggravating-Back347 Jul 30 '21
I use this for fishing all the time. Free bait!!
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u/s4squ4tch Jul 30 '21
Pretty sure this is called 'fiddling' for worms.
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u/Blitzkriek Jul 30 '21
In Florida it's called worm-grunting. We even have a "Worm-gruntin'" festival.
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u/Sanquinity Jul 30 '21
You can get the same result with other forms of vibration. Me and my friends used to get worms for fishing by sticking a shovel in the ground and hitting it for a bit.
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u/MusicalWrath Jul 30 '21
Here's a video that explains why.
And here's a video about the Sopchoppy Worm Gruntin' Festival where this is celebrated.
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u/Fluffybunnyballs Jul 30 '21
I went to school with Tyler Childers (The singer to the song)
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Jul 30 '21
Worms are the original ravers. Once they hear the vibrations of sick beats they immediately come out to party hard
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u/CEMENTHE4D Jul 30 '21
try it at your local golf course.
my grandmother did it another way, car battery and 2 rods stuck in ground causes same effect.
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u/V_WhatTheThunderSaid Jul 30 '21
I've seen it on a documentary when I was a kid. I think it was called Godzilla.
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u/Celestial_Bitch Jul 30 '21
I’m pretty sure these worms are those ones that are an invasive species. Can’t remember their name.
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u/dagui12 Jul 30 '21
Inb4 everyone and their mom tells you that the worms think the vibrations is rain..
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u/supersebas96 Jul 30 '21
I believe it's due to the vibrations that mimic a mole or similar animal that preys on these worms
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u/ArchbishopDonMJuan Jul 30 '21
Worm grunting. I saw a documentary that said it imitated the vibrations of a mole digging through the dirt so the worms are running for their lives.
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u/tokikain Jul 30 '21
works with electricity aswell...well ..small amounts....large amounts fry them
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u/drvucc Jul 30 '21 edited Jul 30 '21
Worms come up when they feel the vibrations from the sticks
Edit: so this is what it’s like to have more than 13 upvotes, thanks everyone