Do your worms like to play pick-up sticks or play with little toys like mine do? I mean, what else can earthworms do but play with things near their burrows? Let me tell you about the worms in my yard and some of the things I’ve seen them do. I’ll start by telling you a story of how I figured out worms like to play with little toys.
I was out in the yard one dark, rainy night looking for something. I think I was trying to figure out what was eating the mushrooms that pop up in the grass. I must have been using a red light because it seems insects can’t see red. Apparently that was good because the red light didn’t bother the worms either.
Anyway, out of the corner of my eye, I kept seeing leaves twitch and move here and there in the grass. What is happening? I wondered. What is snitching leaves from my yard?
I started playing the flashlight slowly around the yard. Sure enough, I saw a plantain leaf fall prey to the snitcher. I sneaked carefully over there, and the snitcher was an earthworm! It was stretched out very long out of its burrow. It had a good hold on that plantain leaf with its tiny mouth and was pulling on it. Just like that, the leaf tore loose, and the worm shrank back into its burrow, leaf and all.
Shortly, I saw a grass blade go down nearby. Wow! I thought. There’s a lot of snitching going on here.
Somehow though, I still have to mow my lawn. I guess I don’t have enough hungry worms to do it for me.
Another night I was out in the dark with my red light watching worm burrows. Soon I saw a worm come up out of its hole. It stuck itself out of its burrow an inch or so. It waved itself around in circles a bit and then began fussing with its collection of stuff. It was being very meticulous, as it almost lovingly nudged its junk around. Well, it looked like junk to me—little twigs, ugly ol’ maple samaras, a pebble or two, and some dead plant stems.
After what seemed like a long time, it stretched out a couple of inches, found a piece of bark mulch, felt around on it with its head, picked it up (literally swung it through the air), and placed it with its other collected items that decorated its mound of castings.
That’s when I got the idea to do an experiment with worms and worm-sized toys. I took two little toy cars and placed them near an earthworm midden (its mound of castings and collection of junk/treasures). I put one car against a twig and the other beside a pebble. Then I took a picture so I could compare a “before” picture with the “after” picture. Then I would be able to easily see if the worm played with the cars. I thought it might even add them to its collection.
Sure enough, a couple of days later the cars were in different locations, but only the twig was added to the midden. Perhaps you’d like to try putting some little toys out for your worms to play with.
Now, in case you didn’t know, I’m a digger. You can probably guess what I did to an earthworm midden. Yes! Of course I had to dig into one to see what it looks like down inside a worm burrow. I mean, who wouldn’t want to explore a worm tunnel? Actually, I dug quite a few of them because they’re all a bit different. Some go straight down, and others go down at an angle. In most of the burrows, just a few inches down, I found some cached worm food. Like in the one pictured, there was a fragment of a leaf, a blackened berry, and a partially eaten maple seed. In other burrows, I saw blades of grass, whole leaves, and various fragments of plant material.
I reckon the worms in your yard will enjoy playing with little toys or collecting some junk if you set some near their middens. I’m sure, too, if you go out some dark, rainy night and shine a red flashlight slowly around, you’ll get to see worms snitching grass and plantain leaves from your yard.
If you want to see for yourself where those leaves are going, start digging beside the worm hole and work a vertical edge toward it. I stick a long skinny, flexible plant stem down first to see which way the tunnel goes (because angled holes are harder to follow). For exploring a worm burrow, I use my trusty trowel which is very, very sharp from use doing archaeology.
Oh, and a little warning, all my jeans’ knees are stained by dirt and grass—just something to consider if you start following a worm tunnel.