Get outside and dance for worms, Brits told
You may already feel you’ve danced with some worms in your time, but now it’s time to get your wellies out and dance with the real thing.
The ancient art of ‘worm charming’ involves stamping on the soil to encourage worms to squirm to the surface.
There’s more than one technique: some people jump, some play the drums or tuba to the ground, and some may even do the worm for worms.
Doing it could help the world around us, as a charity is urging people to count how many appear and report their finding for a national survey.
Alex Burton, Head of Worms at the Soil Association, told Metro.co.uk: ‘Looking at the earthworm population really gives us a picture of the health of UK soils. Healthy soils have more worms.
‘Worms are really under threat at the moment, which comes as surprise to a lot of people. We’ve seen a decline about a third in the last 25 years or so.’
This month they’re asking people to do a ‘worm hunt’ by trying to charm worms for half an hour and see how many appear.
It works because the vibrations going through the soil make worms think that it’s raining, so they should pop up to the surface and have a look.
Nobody knows exactly why they do this, but some theories are that they find it easier to move above ground when it is moist, so they come out to find a mate or move to a new location.
Whatever the reason, it’s reliable enough that birds have even adapted to stamp on the ground and coax up the poor hoodwinked worms so they can eat them.
The annual ‘Worm Hunt’ aims to survey the state of Britain’s soil by estimating worm numbers and creating a map of where the soil is high and low quality.
People can take part either in their garden or another outside space, and vibrate the soil by dancing or whatever method they prefer, simply putting the worms that show up in a dark container with soil to count them.
When time is up, they can release the worms again under a bush or somewhere else that seems a nice place for them to find their way home.
When it comes to method, Alex says he likes to try opera singing ‘just for the hilarity’ but ‘anything with a baseline’ would likely work.
He warned that anyone trying tap dancing would need to be careful not to get carried away and stand on top of any worms, which would be counterproductive to the aims of the citizen science.
He said that many organic farmers dig soil pits to count worms and survey their soil, so people who join in with the worm hunt are part of a long tradition.
There is even a festival about charming worms held in Falmouth, Cornwall, each year, where a brass band plays a specially-written song to the ground.
The practice is especially popular with children, who may be amazed to see the worms summoned like magic.
Explaining the importance of the research, Alex said: ‘Healthy soils help prevent floods and droughts and they are a really useful store for carbon. We really do need healthy soils if we’re going to get through the climate crisis.’
When it comes to how many worms you can expect to see, it depends more on the health of the soil rather than it being rural or urban. But the record number in half an hour would be up to around 200.
If you go on a worm hunt, report your findings by May 31 to be part of the soil survey.
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