I've Got Worms..

For many, admitting to the world that they have worms is a nightmare on par with loosing your pants on stage at your school assembly. But for me, it's reason so celebrate!

As you can see above, the path outside my house morphs into a decent flowing stream during the monsoon rains and manages to channel the bulk of the downpour that lands on the property past my front door, out the main gates, down our neighbour's gulley, and out into the main street. One of the sad things I've come to notice is that once the soil becomes waterlogged, the earthworms are forced to the surface (which depending on who you read means that they're either in search of oxygen or alternatively are using the opportunity afforded them of a slippery wet ground to travel greater distances overland), and then decide to travel with the current of water in which ever direction it may take them.

If you're familiar with some of my earlier posts, you'll know that in amongst the countless hours I've spent sifting through the soil in the Resurrection Garden I'd never once come across even a single Earthworm and so to finally see worms (and worms in abundance) on the property was a tremendously exciting event! (Yes, I recognise how that sounds! But don't pretend all you gardeners don't know what I'm talking about!) So I'm sure you can all feel my pain when I came to discover the worms actively moving with the current down the path, past my front door, out the main gates, down our neighbour's gulley, and to their deaths out in the street.

Seeing this tragedy unfold forced my heart and hands into action and out into the rains I went to save these little guys from the cruel streets Banaras and whisk them away to the safety and comfort of a cut up old coke bottle. My neighbour's sons (you may remember them from When a violent riot explodes outside your house) were intrigued by my growing collection of worms so I enlisted their help by offering them 10rupees per small container of worms that they collected. Their eyes went wide with excitement at the prospect of making 10 rupees (roughly AU$0.17) per container, however they are Brahmin kids (the top Hindu Caste) and when their Father caught them picking up worms he swiftly put an end to it.

I remained undeterred in my rescue efforts and before long Little Feather came out to see what I was up to and soon joined in the fun. It was interesting watching my neighbour's sons being extremely timid in their approach to picking up worms; only using sticks and other implements to lift them and squealing if they squirmed onto their hands or feet, contrasted with Little Feather who just charges in and grabs hand fulls of them and now affectionately refers to them as "Mr Wormy-Worms" who are "our Friends." I've got to say, I'm pretty fond of this kid of mine!

In just over an hour we collected goodness knows how many hundred worms (and some pretty decent sized ones too) who were destined for relocation to their new home in the Resurrection Garden. The same surfacing of worms happened again and again throughout Monsoon (essentially anytime it rained heavily) and so I was able to curtail the mass exodus of worms from the property whilst substantially growing the population of worms in my veggie plots. 

I'd like to say that it was all a roaring success but in the spirit of full disclosure, I did, on one occasion, leave a collection of worms in a 10L bucket that had some soil and leaves in it in my spare room for a couple of days. When I finally had the time to move them to the garden, I went in to the spare room and was shocked to find not one single worm still alive. In fact, I didn't find even one single worm. So either there is a collection of Worms currently hiding under the bed (I did actually look there) or the entire group of worms completely disintegrated into a liquid in the space of 50hours. Remarkable creatures! That experience was certainly enough to teach me not to keep them longer than I had too.

Now, to leave you on a slightly more informed note so you won't feel like you've totally wasted your time, here are some facts about Mr Wormy-Worms that may or may not just blow your mind;
* Earth worms do not have eyes (but they can still see, kinda)
* Earth worms do not have hearts (but they still have blood pumping throughout their bodies)
* Earth worms do not have brains (thus will survive the Zombie apocalypse)
* Earth worms are hermaphrodites (possessing both the male and female reproductive organs)
* Earth worms can, on average, live for 6.5 years (older than both my kids combined)