Hi everybody, i have this curious mass Suizide of Earthworms every time there is a Thunderstorm with lightning and rain in the vicinity of our place.
What happens is, that i find in the morning after the Storm sometimes up to a 100 death or dying Worms at the entrance of my Basement, which is about 150cm below level Ground.
Usualy the concrete floor is moist but not soaking wet, the doors are grills and there is unhindred airflow throughout the Basement, most of the worms are just in front and inside the Basement doors.
I noticed that since we are at this place, btw. we are in the Philippines on the Island of Negros on the South-East corner, we have much more Worms in the Garden, as evident by the many small piles of Soil and the softness of the Ground.
Any explanation for this phenomenon?
I am thinking it has something to do with Electricity…
Earthworms always come out of the ground when it rains a lot, because if they didn’t, they’d drown.
ETA: I suspect that many of them drown anyway.
This use to happen in my neighborhood growing up. I was always told that the worms came out of the ground so they wouldn’t drown, and then the sun came out and dried them out while they were on the pavement.
you will see this more with areas of thin soil layer or clay soils, where the topsoil gets saturated quickly.
Why settle for an answer from us mere mortals?
Oh, and by the way, the word is “suicide”, with a C, not Z.
Why can’t they use the spice to fold space and escape?
Where I live the robins have a feast when this happens. I don’t think I’ve seen them dry up. I live in Chicago and when they come up on the ground the robins have a buffet
Based on Cecil’s (eventual) reply, and what I’ve read elsewhere, worms crawl up on the ground when it rains because that’s a good time to go where their burrows don’t, and do things like mate, or find a good place for new burrows.
The reason they end up just outside and inside your basement door is that the below ground entrance works as a worm trap. The worms go down there by chance, and can’t get up, and when they try to find somewhere nice, dark and earthy going towards and through your door is their best bet.
That’s based on a guess that your basement stairs and stairwell are mostly concrete or similar.
I’m still trying to recover from that horrible day in 1970 when I had to walk down the driveway to catch the schoolbus one rainy morning and there simply was not a foot-sized spot the entire length of the drive that wasn’t covered by a worm. Never seen a worm migration that bad again, and hope not to see another the rest of my life. I can still smell them…
To clarify, they only appear when there is lighting and the Rain is not that heavy that
the land get’s flooded, i also get to see them on very sunny hot Day’s where they come crawling
out of the ground and then wiggle across baking hot Concrete and get cooked in the process!?
Lightning may be traveling through the ground in that area, which will cause the earthworms to surface. Earthworms don’t like electricity.
Electric utility companies take advantage of this to help find broken lines. When there is a broken underground line, the linemen will often use a technique called “thumping” where they momentarily energize the broken line. They then listen for the “thump” noise that is often audible at the break. If they don’t hear a thump, they also will look for earthworms coming up out of the ground. If you hear a thump or see earthworms (or both), then you know that is where to dig to find the break.
Thanks “engineer_comp_geek”, that’s what i was looking for, i remember that somebody told me once, while Fishing on a Lake, that they would use the car batterie and the Jumper cable to drive the Worms out of the Ground to use as bite.