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The science of alien worms

With fishing season upon us, many people are on the lookout for the best way to get a healthy pile of worms to use as bait. But did you know that you’re fishing with aliens?! Up until recently, our forests functioned entirely without them.

With fishing season upon us, many people are on the lookout for the best way to get a healthy pile of worms to use as bait. But did you know that you’re fishing with aliens?!

Up until recently, our forests functioned entirely without them.  Earthworms in Canada today are actually invasive species … brought in over the last 300 years from either Europe or Asia.

As they continue to slowly spread across the country, they’re gradually changing the forest floors wherever they go in unexpected ways!  And earthworms are some of the most advanced animal in which some species are capable of regenerating a “head” if it is removed! 

If you’d looking for worms to research, or just to put on the end of your fishing line, try this:

Force a large, grooved, wooden peg into slightly moist ground. Vibrate this wooden peg with a metal bar, dull saw, or stick, and watch as worms wriggle out of the ground and onto the surface! This is a difficult skill to master called “worm grunting.”
                
But we’re not the only ones “worm grunting.”  Gulls, and even wood turtles are known to stamp their feet to vibrate worms to the surface!

Scientists believe the vibrations sound like a very large burrowing mole to earthworms underground.  So they try to escape being eaten and wiggle to the top!

Boy are they in for a surprise!

Now that’s cool science!





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