Saturday, November 15, 2008

Mystery Solved: Worm Grunting





I can't tell you how many times I've found myself wishing I had a big bucket full of worms. Okay, not many. But if I ever find myself lost in the woods, with only a trout-filled stream to feed me, I now know how to quickly rustle up some fishing bait. (Or an appetizer.)

It's called worm grunting. Here's a description from the New York Times: "Worm grunting, also known as worm fiddling or charming, involves driving a wooden stake into the ground and rubbing the top of it with a . . . flat piece of steel to make a grunting or snoring noise. Done in the right place under the right conditions, the result will be hundreds of earthworms appearing on the surface of the ground. Worm grunting is practiced in parts of the southeast to obtain fish bait."

Kind of cool, if you're into slimy, soil-dwelling invertebrates. But until recently, no one had no idea how how it worked. Now scientists have discovered that the sound produced is similar to the sounds made by moles. The worms think they're being chased and flee to the surface!

Enjoy the great worm grunter video below, which offers numerous fascinating worm facts!


10 comments:

peanut butter said...

eww! worms are icky!

Anonymous said...

That is so cool!

Irregular Kiki said...

Wow! That's really clever.
Peanut Butter: Worms ARE really icky!!!!!

We were digging our grass so we could plant new grass with some chicken manure. Some people found looong worms and they forced me to bring my favourite chicken (Jubjub) and feed it to her! EW! She gobbled it up in one millisecond. It was so cute though! She was helping us dig, and she ate some worms!!! I miss my chickens :(

peanut butter said...

i love gummy worms:)

liltomboyblue11;) said...

I love worms! Once I found a night crawler about a foot long in my backyard!

Kitty said...

Me too Liltomboyblue11!! X3 I loved earthworms since K-4!! They're soo cute!! Worm grunting... I wanna ty that today.

liltomboyblue said...

Kitty: You like anime/manga (japanese "comics") right? Have you ever heard of Clamp or Arina Tanemura?

Persephone said...

worms are so cute!!! i should do a post on them on my blog..

ss (eweth!) chick said...

ok, the music at the beginning mixed with the worm quote made me laugh. and my mum says hillbillies are weird after about 3 min of wtching the two. that made me laugh, too. and no, worms are not cute. it grosses me out when they die. its gross to watch them die. really gross.

Anonymous said...

The worm grunting reminds me of Dune ...