This week I am focusing on worms. Last week's "Friday Compost" was about... compost, and led me to the subject of worms. There are several different types of worms, but only one of these types fascinates me - the burrowing earthworm. They live in the ground, eat dirt, and poop fertilizer. If you doubt this, Google "worm poop fertilizer". There will be around 171,000 results.
There are surface worms that eat whatever you toss on them, and repay you by pooping fertilizer. These are also pretty cool. A company that sells surface worms owns the Web site URL www.wormpoop.com. Don't buy these worms for your compost pile, they won't be happy. It would be like a bicyclist having to ride the subway. That's bad, real bad.
Earthworms are the worms that are the coolest. They burrow through the ground by passing much of the dirt through their tubular body. As the dirt passes through their body, they digest the organic matter. The sand they ingest helps them digest. They leave behind what is called worm casings (or poop), which is actually humus. Notice the single "m". If I wrote "hummus", you'd stop buying the ground chickpeas at the grocery store. Some of you may not buy the hummus anyway. It is very easy to make.
Humus is stabilized organic matter, that has broken down as far as it can break down. This is what you will find in the bottom of your new backyard compost bin in about another week, if you purchased one after last week's blog. This stuff makes an awesome soil amendment, which allows for water and air to pass through the root zone, and stores nutrients for the plants. This should be worked into your soil by turning it in with a spading fork. Or with a roto-tiller if you abhor exercise.
Some people who have seen Tremors are afraid of worms. This is called scoleciphobia. Actually, that's just fear of the little worms. By the way, most fears are passed on from parent to child. I'd never have guessed this connection. But I digress.
Worms are a gardener's friend. (And a fisherman's friend, we'll get to that later.) Having worms live in your compost pile is a great compliment. It means you are keeping it healthy, and appropriately moist. If you don't have worms, you may need to figure out why. It may be due to poor ground contact, or it not being well aerated and moist. Over time, if your compost is healthy, the worm population will increase. As you take out compost, you will transfer some of these healthy worms to your gardens, where they will continue to eat and poop. All of this is good.
Worms are great for bait, and fun to catch. Some people think you dig them up for fishing. But a true outdoors person knows how to get the worms while they are relaxing and mating on the surface. The worms that, is not the fishermen. Although they are welcome to relax and mate on the lawn also. Worms are hermaphrodites, but let's not go too deep into that subject. There may be kids reading this.
Here's how to go about worm hunting. On a dark night, when the lawn is moist, take a flashlight and cover the lens with a piece of wax paper. I used rubber bands to do this. Go outside with the light off, and get down on all fours on your lawn. This won't work on pavement, you'll just look weird, and may end up with armed men in tactical gear showing up. The worms can feel the vibrations of you moving, and are very fast at pulling back into the wormhole (for you Star Trekkies, this isn't the space wormhole, this is a hole in the dirt). So settle in very slowly.
After you are on the ground, hold the flashlight in your non-dominant hand. If you aren't sure which one is dominant, it's the one you use to write. So hold the flashlight in the hand you DON'T use to write. Take your dominant hand and keep it in front of you, ready to spring into action. Turn on the light. Don't overextend, you will need the light to not go past your arm's reach. Worms lay on the surface, and you have about the blink of an eye to grab them. Aim for the side of the worm that is in the hole. You will develop an intuition for this. If you grab too hard, they break. But don't feel bad, they can regrow what you broke off, they have several hearts. Once you have one between your fingers, don't yank, or they will break. You will need to apply steady pressure by pulling them away from the hole. They will eventually give up, and you can drop them in your bait bucket. If you see them pull back, slowly crawl forward and try again. This is real hunting. Human against worm. A winner and a loser. Be the winner.
I think there's a plan to build a Wii game called "Earthworm Grabber". It will be considered a fitness system, and provide a great opportunity for kids to pretend they are grabbing worms with one hand, while eating potato chips with the other. I'm not sure if the experience will be the same. So grab a kid, a flashlight, wax paper, and a rubber band, and go experience nature as it was intended to be experienced.
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There are surface worms that eat whatever you toss on them, and repay you by pooping fertilizer. These are also pretty cool. A company that sells surface worms owns the Web site URL www.wormpoop.com. Don't buy these worms for your compost pile, they won't be happy. It would be like a bicyclist having to ride the subway. That's bad, real bad.
Earthworms are the worms that are the coolest. They burrow through the ground by passing much of the dirt through their tubular body. As the dirt passes through their body, they digest the organic matter. The sand they ingest helps them digest. They leave behind what is called worm casings (or poop), which is actually humus. Notice the single "m". If I wrote "hummus", you'd stop buying the ground chickpeas at the grocery store. Some of you may not buy the hummus anyway. It is very easy to make.
Humus is stabilized organic matter, that has broken down as far as it can break down. This is what you will find in the bottom of your new backyard compost bin in about another week, if you purchased one after last week's blog. This stuff makes an awesome soil amendment, which allows for water and air to pass through the root zone, and stores nutrients for the plants. This should be worked into your soil by turning it in with a spading fork. Or with a roto-tiller if you abhor exercise.
Some people who have seen Tremors are afraid of worms. This is called scoleciphobia. Actually, that's just fear of the little worms. By the way, most fears are passed on from parent to child. I'd never have guessed this connection. But I digress.
Worms are a gardener's friend. (And a fisherman's friend, we'll get to that later.) Having worms live in your compost pile is a great compliment. It means you are keeping it healthy, and appropriately moist. If you don't have worms, you may need to figure out why. It may be due to poor ground contact, or it not being well aerated and moist. Over time, if your compost is healthy, the worm population will increase. As you take out compost, you will transfer some of these healthy worms to your gardens, where they will continue to eat and poop. All of this is good.
Worms are great for bait, and fun to catch. Some people think you dig them up for fishing. But a true outdoors person knows how to get the worms while they are relaxing and mating on the surface. The worms that, is not the fishermen. Although they are welcome to relax and mate on the lawn also. Worms are hermaphrodites, but let's not go too deep into that subject. There may be kids reading this.
Here's how to go about worm hunting. On a dark night, when the lawn is moist, take a flashlight and cover the lens with a piece of wax paper. I used rubber bands to do this. Go outside with the light off, and get down on all fours on your lawn. This won't work on pavement, you'll just look weird, and may end up with armed men in tactical gear showing up. The worms can feel the vibrations of you moving, and are very fast at pulling back into the wormhole (for you Star Trekkies, this isn't the space wormhole, this is a hole in the dirt). So settle in very slowly.
After you are on the ground, hold the flashlight in your non-dominant hand. If you aren't sure which one is dominant, it's the one you use to write. So hold the flashlight in the hand you DON'T use to write. Take your dominant hand and keep it in front of you, ready to spring into action. Turn on the light. Don't overextend, you will need the light to not go past your arm's reach. Worms lay on the surface, and you have about the blink of an eye to grab them. Aim for the side of the worm that is in the hole. You will develop an intuition for this. If you grab too hard, they break. But don't feel bad, they can regrow what you broke off, they have several hearts. Once you have one between your fingers, don't yank, or they will break. You will need to apply steady pressure by pulling them away from the hole. They will eventually give up, and you can drop them in your bait bucket. If you see them pull back, slowly crawl forward and try again. This is real hunting. Human against worm. A winner and a loser. Be the winner.
I think there's a plan to build a Wii game called "Earthworm Grabber". It will be considered a fitness system, and provide a great opportunity for kids to pretend they are grabbing worms with one hand, while eating potato chips with the other. I'm not sure if the experience will be the same. So grab a kid, a flashlight, wax paper, and a rubber band, and go experience nature as it was intended to be experienced.
Do you like this blog post? Share it with your social circle using the handy buttons at the bottom of this post.
_____________
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