# A dumb question about earth worms, in two parts.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-dumb-question-about-earth-worms-in-two-parts/244066>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 7, 2004, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-dumb-question-about-earth-worms-in-two-parts/244066 "2004-05-07T20:28:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-dumb-question-about-earth-worms-in-two-parts/244066/1 "2004-05-07T20:28:38Z")

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Where do earth worms go in the winter?

Do they:

a) dig down to below the frost line  
b) die, but lay eggs that hatch in the warmer weather  
c) a combination of a and b except earth worms don’t lay eggs.

Secondly, when it rains really heavily all the earth worms wind up on the sidewalk where they get squished. I would assume during a particularly rainy period, you’d pretty much run out of earth worms, but that never seems to be the case. So, is this because:

a) more earth worm eggs wait in the soil and then hatch when it’s dryer  
b) some of the worms manage to get back into the soil  
c) a combination of a and b except earth worms don’t lay eggs.

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**Author:** ![Jpeg\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4bbf92/32.png) [@Jpeg\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jpeg_Jones)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-dumb-question-about-earth-worms-in-two-parts/244066/2 "2004-05-07T20:45:38Z")

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Earthworms in two parts rarely go anywhere.

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**Author:** ![Jpeg\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4bbf92/32.png) [@Jpeg\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jpeg_Jones)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-dumb-question-about-earth-worms-in-two-parts/244066/3 "2004-05-07T20:54:16Z")

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Okay, okay, sorry.

[Here](http://www.k12.nf.ca/ctk/hiber/waylon.htm) is what appears to be an extremely cute 2-paragraph book report about earthworm hibernation.

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**Author:** ![wisernow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@wisernow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wisernow)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-dumb-question-about-earth-worms-in-two-parts/244066/4 "2004-05-07T21:07:55Z")

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Here is a past [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=254302&highlight=earthworm) about earth worms and here is [this](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_014.html) from Cecil’s mailbag that might help you somewhat.

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**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-dumb-question-about-earth-worms-in-two-parts/244066/5 "2004-05-07T22:00:12Z")

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> [@Jpeg Jones](#):
>
> Earthworms in two parts rarely go anywhere.

Maybe each part of the question will regenerate into a separate question?