Are my mother and I the only people who do this? After it rains (which is pretty much constant now), we pick up any earthworms we see on the sidewalks or driveways and toss 'em back on the grass, so they don’t get skooshed. They really put up a struggle, but you can usually double 'em over and get a light grip.
Are we the only Worm Saviours, or do y’all do this, as well? Yesterday I rescued seven worms, three twigs and a slug.
And I thought I was nuts! If I find a worm on the sidewalk that’s in imminent danger of being stepped on, I’ll toss him back onto the grass. Those worms that appear to be making their way off the pavement themselves, I leave alone.
After all, I think, how would I feel if I was making my way to my house and somebody picked me up and threw me an extra couple miles?
I did this with caterpilars (sp?) when I was young. The awful, cruel boys in the neighborhood would line them up in a row and run over them with their skateboards.
I threw their skateboards over the fence into the woods and rescued the rest of the little fellas.
I even buried the squished ones and had a little funeral for them.
I know…I was an odd child…
I don’t save them much when it rains, but when a few surface while I’m gardening, I’ll toss 'em aside so they don’t get whacked by my spade. However, I’m getting a real visual of Eve and her mother…sort of corraling around the little fellers to keep others from stepping on them. And kind of scurrying them off to the grass. Heh. Human worm corrals.
Am I the only one that pops them into my mouth? Mmmm, slugs.
Eve, et al, please stop. If the next day after the rainy day is a hot, sunny day, you’re depriving me of a delicious, crunchy snack.
Mmmmm, baked worms.
I used to rescue worms when I was a kid, only then I discovered it led to social ostracism on the playground. Then, after many years, it finally dawned on me that the other kids would still hate me no matter what I did or didn’t do, so I figured I might as well save a few worms. Sigh.
I shall rescue the worms of Dundalk next rain.
I would save the little ones from the squishing but I would put the big ones in a gallon bucket of dirt. They might have thought they had been saved but little did they know they would be scewered on a hook and thrown in a lake only as bait.
:sinister Laugh:
Yair, I’ve been known to do that.
I also get weird looks from my girlfriend when I respond to her “Aaaaack! A SPIDER!!!” by coming into the room with a drinking glass and a piece of card so I can take the critter outside, instead of coming in with an old boot to splat it with.
I’m not nearly as nice to humans though.
ick ick ick.
I just end up tip-toe-ing around despartely trying not to step on them. And generally cursing nature for not working out a way to prevent this occurace.
Worms are the one and only thing that I find ‘icky’ and their unfortunate demise after rain storms is one of the worst parts.
ick.
Great, now I have the “We Are the Worms” song in my head. You know the one they parodied from "We Are the World’?
But yeah, I’ve done it before.
I don’t worry about the slugs but…
HELL YES EVE! My gardening takes forever because I am always digging the worms out of the roots of the weeds and finding new homes for them. Every spring yup… condos for worms:D
And I have been known to relocate spiders as well… I frown on homesteading in my dining room… they usually get taken to the laundry room…
I do that sometimes. I hate to see the ones that didn’t make it and bake in the sun. 
I’ve never made it a point to actively save them but I am careful to avoid stepping on them.
I move the worms off the driveway, use the glass and cardboard to move wasps out of the house, (we let the spiders stay to monitor the fly population), and I probably got Deb to marry me by stopping in the middle of the road and moving slow-moving salamander back into the swamp on a really chilly late summer morning.
Am I the only guy that hates worms and spiders?
I figure you are just recycling the “go to the sidewalk” gene in the worm population. Give it a few thousand years, and the problem will solve itself.
Tris
I rescue all the worms in Dundalk when it rains
Rain, rain, and rain! What is rain?
(in the middle of a drought here in 'merca’s heartland)