WEBVTT - Grunting the Conqueror Worm 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.960 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:15.640 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.160 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie, 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:21.759 when you were in school, did you ever dissect earthworms? No, 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:23.799 but as a youngster, I would sit around with my 0:00:23.840 --> 0:00:26.240 friends and I would pluck them from the ground and 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:30.160 then we would cut them in half. Why why. I 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:32.720 think the idea was that we would double our profits 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:36.320 if we sold them to fishermen. I don't even know 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:39.240 that we actually It's like Land of a Million Lakes 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:42.559 or something up there, right, something like that. So, so 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:45.200 there were a lot of fishermen, and in the area 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:46.559 there are a lot of there was a lot of 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:49.240 fishing going on, and they were dimwitted enough to buy 0:00:49.960 --> 0:00:53.159 hesy worms from from children. I don't know that we 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:55.880 actually sold them, but this was sort of our version 0:00:55.880 --> 0:00:58.160 of the lemonade stand that really never came to fruition. 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:00.640 I think it was just about cutting them. And have 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:04.319 to be quite honest, were you going like lengthwise or umb? 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:07.920 Oh no, no, like not down the middle, just across 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:10.080 the body, because when we would cut them open and 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:12.959 and certainly I grew up at times, you know, in 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:16.760 the countryside and on Kentucky lakes. So I have slain 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:20.479 many a worm on a hook. Uh generally didn't catch anything, 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:22.840 but I but I've I've I've engaged in that kind 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:27.520 of barbaric behavior myself. And uh and in in high school, 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:31.920 I definitely remember dissecting them where you had to they 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:33.720 give you the worm that's been like, you know, drenched 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:37.080 and preserved and fluid, and then you have to just 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:39.479 slit it down the middle and then peel it back 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:43.120 and uh and pin it's it's hide and then go 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:46.120 in there and pinpoint the different organisms. Uh. So when 0:01:46.120 --> 0:01:49.080 we were putting this episode together, was looking at the 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:51.760 at the drawings of the inside of the Earth Forum, 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:53.320 and it is bringing back memories and like, I remember 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:55.880 that and I and I also remember the harsh chemical 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:59.120 stink of the whole thing that I do remember, but 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:02.160 I may be associated it with frogs. Oh, it's probably 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:04.240 the same smell because they're both preserved in the same 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:06.800 the same liquids. But yeah, to see all that split out, 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:09.760 you get to see the glorious entrails, the circulatory system, 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:12.600 respiratory system, and it's very cool. To see all of 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:15.960 that or know that all that is packed into this tiny, little, wriggling, 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:22.240 slime malicious tube emerging from the ground. Yeah, so did 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:24.080 you like worms? Did you? Or did? What was your 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:27.200 relationship with him? You just enjoyed cutting them up? I 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:30.919 mean I'm gonna say enjoyed because I see what's going 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:35.160 on here, you frying ants, cutting up worms. Next thing 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:37.960 you know, I'm a serial killer. No, No, we've discussed before. 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:40.040 A lot of this is just you testing your boundaries. 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:43.120 Which which living creatures can you cut in half and 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:44.760 get away with it? And which ones can you not? 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:47.960 And we all have to find that that that thin 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:50.680 gray line for ourselves. Yeah. Look, I had the that 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:54.880 sort of idealized upbringing, you know, out in the Michigan countryside, 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:58.160 playing with mud pies and tearing apart worms. That's all 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:00.360 I can say about it. Well, that tend to go 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:01.880 with your hand in hand because you're making the mud 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:04.160 pies you get in the ground, wet worms are coming up. 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:07.200 Next thing you know, this has happening, and you're singing 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:11.440 the Hers song. Are you familiar worms? Yes? Yeah, the 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:14.600 worms crawl in, the worms crawl out. They play peanutle 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:19.480 on your snout. Scalp right there, scalp. Maybe it's an 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:24.240 alternate version. Yeah. Well, anyway, so if you haven't guessed, 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:27.520 in this episode we were talking about earthworms, Um, we're 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:30.240 gonna take you through the basic anatomy of the earthworm, 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:32.880 just to refresh your mind. If it's been a while 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:36.000 since you've you've wormed a hook or cut one open 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:38.760 in a classroom. Then we're gonna talk about some more 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:41.320 interesting things. We're going to the the earthworm about. It's uh, 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:44.960 it's it's conquering of North America and uh, and also 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:47.080 a little something called worm grunting that I was not 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:49.840 familiar with until just the other week, and then in 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.080 total amazement on and you wrote a great blog post 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:57.560 about it with an accompanying YouTube clip which is wonderful, Yes, wonderful, 0:03:57.640 --> 0:04:01.080 wacky and very British, so yes, so so that the 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:03.560 Brits out there already know what I'm talking about. But 0:04:03.880 --> 0:04:06.240 hang with us. We will get to that as well. Uh. 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:09.000 Before we get we get into the anatomy of the earthworm. 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:10.960 I do want to point out something and make a 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:14.080 call back to a previous episode. Um, the last common 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:19.320 ancestor of earthworm in Man existed about six million years ago. Uh. 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:22.640 But if you just focus on the digestive system, we're 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:25.440 not all that different. If you remember from our our 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:29.120 several parts series where we we went through the human anatomy, 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:32.120 and we mentioned Mary Roaches book Gold if she has 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:34.799 a point where she points out that humans are quote 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:39.480 basically a highly evolved earthworm surrounded surrounding the intestinal tract. 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:41.880 And uh, and so I think that's something that one 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:45.560 of the reasons we find earthworms so fascinating and sometimes 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:48.640 a little horrifying, and also of course when we we 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:50.960 cut them open in science classes, because it's a very 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:56.120 simple model, it's very inhuman. But but but had its roots, 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:58.640 has a lot in common with us. It's true. I'm 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:00.200 glad that you point that out, because it really is 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:03.840 sort of, um, we are sort of these glorified earthworms 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:06.960 with heads and shoes on. Right. Um, alright, so let's 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:10.400 talk about these earthworms. They are classified in the phylum Analyta, 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:14.240 or innalids. They are mauve colored, as I said, slime 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:18.880 malicious tubes. They're found in Europe, North America, and Western Asia. 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:21.640 You can spot them probably in your local garden and 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:23.840 they are used of course on fishing lines for bait, 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:29.040 but their main occupation is as underground farmers. Yes, yeah, 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:32.200 they're there are bervores. They live up to six years 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:34.720 uh in size. You'll see them get up to a 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:38.839 fourteen inches in length or thirty Wait you choose to 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:42.360 weigh such things up to a point nine ounces or 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:45.280 eleven point two grams. You know. I have read that 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:48.000 there is um a particular kind of earthworm in South 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:50.800 America can grow up to eight feet long. We're talking 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:53.680 about two point four meters in weigh over a pound. 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:57.920 You need a bigger hook for that. And of course 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:01.839 their bodies are made up of ring like segments called annuli, 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:05.440 and these segments are covered in a seat or you know, 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:08.760 basically small bristles which the worm uses to move and burrow. 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:12.400 If you ever saw the movie Tremmors with the monster worm, 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:19.640 which takes a lot of different aspects of biological peculiarity 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:22.799 and can combines them into one monster. But they also 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:25.719 point out that the monster in that moves through the ground, 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:27.960 or supposedly does, in the same way that an earth 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:30.760 worm does. So these little bristles, uh, you know, frantically 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:33.560 pulling it through the earth. Yeah, because ultimately those segments 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:36.000 have to move independently of the entire body, or else 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:38.600 it probably would never get anywhere. And it's pretty slow 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:41.800 moving as it is. Yeah, and uh, she comes to 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:44.320 no surprise to anyone that on the front portion of 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:46.840 the of the worm you have a mouth. On the 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:50.360 final segment you have an anis. And as they burrow through, 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:54.719 they consume soil, They extract nutrients from decaying organic matter 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:57.560 like leaves and roots and uh. In doing this, an 0:06:57.560 --> 0:06:59.880 earthworm can eat up to one third its body weight 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:04.400 a single day. And they also consume organic matter like 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:08.080 dead animals. Um. And in their gizzards this is the 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:11.280 place where everything kind of gets blendered up. They actually 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:14.000 consume some stones and some sand granules which helped to 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:17.240 break down that matter. UM. So I think that's pretty 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:20.280 fascinating if you think about that. Um. And then of 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:23.280 course the result is something called castings. This is what 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:26.080 comes out of the anus, and it contains a lot 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:29.000 of nutrients that plants can use. And some people even 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:35.080 use these earthworm castings as garden fertilizer. Yeah. So there 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:37.800 they are important to the soil. They transport soil nutrients 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:41.800 and minerals from the surface from below to the surface, uh, 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:45.440 via the waist, and their tunnels actually aerate the soil 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:48.200 as well, so right, so they really enrich that soil. 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:51.280 And UM, I did want to point out that that 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:53.640 earthworms kind of fall into a couple of groups in 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.720 terms of where they live. Um. They some of them 0:07:56.760 --> 0:07:59.200 live just above the ground, and they kind of squirm 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:01.600 in or just below the plant letter. Now this is 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:04.400 these are all those leaves and twigs and bark that 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:07.760 are on the forest floor, and those are thorms feed 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:09.640 on leaves and the fun guy in the bacteria, and 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:11.800 they helped to break all that down. And then some 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:14.080 live higher up in trees. I did not know this 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:17.080 um inside the king wood or piles of plant material 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:21.520 that gather between limbs. So if you are frightened of worms, 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:24.239 just imagine taking and nicely surely walk through the forest 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:28.280 and looking up and knowing that they're dripping above your head. Um. 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:31.200 And then of course you have those that are traveling 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:32.800 through the layership soil, which is what we kind of 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:35.080 think of when we think of earthworms. And then as 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:37.760 you said, those that burrow really deeply down and can 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:41.280 burrow down as deep as six ft underground cool and 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:43.440 another just tell you know. I'm not going to spend 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:46.440 too much time with the rest of the worms anatomy. 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:50.040 But there is that tail tale little thick portion ye 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.160 that looks like a larger segment and and bulges a 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:56.120 little bit, and that is the sill tell them, and 0:08:56.559 --> 0:08:59.040 that is uh. That has to do with the mating. 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:01.960 And basically what happened here is their hemacroditic much like 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:05.720 our friends the slugs, they can't self fertilize. They cannot 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:08.320 self fertilize, so they're not like truly you know, a 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:12.880 sexual in that sense. But following a mating worm forms 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:15.880 a tiny little cocoon out of a liquid secreted from 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:19.160 the clyde tell um uh, and the spermon eggs are 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:22.400 deposited inside this cocoon. It's buried, and about two to 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:25.800 four week weeks later, baby worms crawl out. So there 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:27.920 you have it, the magic of life. And they do 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:30.720 their their reproduction thing on the top of the fool. 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:33.720 By the way, so a lot of times earthworms are 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:36.559 referred to as nightcrawlers because they come out at night 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:40.120 to feed but also to reproduce. Yes, all right, so 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:42.200 you're probably saying okay, well we already knew all of that, 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:46.480 Robert and Julie. That's that's just common worm sense, right there. Uh, 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.520 let's get to the mind blowing stuff. Yeah. Yeah, enough 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:52.360 about me trampling on them at night during their their 0:09:52.440 --> 0:09:57.320 love mating times. I know that their foot, sure, why not? Okay? 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:00.920 What what did the earth look like before? Um? These 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:05.040 guys were widespread? How have they changed the soil of 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:08.960 our earth? Yeah? I mean specifically North America? When at 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:11.959 least North America provides a really good example of this. Um. 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:16.280 And this is the explored in greater detail in Charles C. 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:20.440 Man's two books, the first one New Revelations of the 0:10:20.440 --> 0:10:25.920 America's Before Columbus and Uncovering the New World Columbus created. UM. 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:28.880 You can also find his an article about this titled 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:31.840 America Found and Lost, where he goes specifically into some 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:34.480 of what we're talking about here today. Basically, the idea 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:38.959 here is that you can more or less attribute earthworms 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:42.959 in North America to a single dude, and that dude 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:47.720 is John Rolfe, who is also generally most well known 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:52.040 as the dude who married Pocahonas. Yeah, and this is 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:56.520 all taking place around Jamestown. Jamestown was found in sixteen 0:10:56.520 --> 0:11:01.120 o seven and it was a just a bad place overall, uh, 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:06.240 foul place, bad water, mosquitoes, eventually malaria, famine, people eating 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:09.600 all their livestock up, uh digging up their own dead. 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:12.560 One case of a man allegedly killing his pregnant wife 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:16.400 insulting her meat um at tension with the local um 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:20.520 Pooton tribes people. It was. It was a pretty bad 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:24.680 uh pad the little corner of history there. But more 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:28.319 to the point, there were no earthworms at the time. UM. 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:31.040 The hardwood forests of New England and the Upper Midwest 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:34.439 UM have no native earthworms. They were apparently all wiped 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:38.840 out in the last ice age years ago. Yeah, so 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:41.440 you're talking about the earthworms eating up all the leaf litter. 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:43.599 While there are no earthworms up the leaf litter, the 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:47.040 leaf litter ends up just piling up. So you have 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:50.200 a rather different ecosystem. But then what happens you have 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:53.920 you have a colonists coming over like Rolf and what 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:57.240 are they bringing. They're bringing um there, they're bringing everything. 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:00.960 They're bringing their agricultural lifestyle else with them. They're bringing 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:04.960 their investigated animals, their plants, they're bringing tobacco plants that 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:08.120 have earthworms in the root ball. Uh. And also when 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:11.560 once they actually start successfully growing tobacco in the New World, 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:13.840 they want to bring it back to market in Europe. 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:16.800 So you know, in order to keep the ship from 0:12:17.240 --> 0:12:19.200 riding too high in the waters, they have to, uh, 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:20.959 they have to to weigh it down. When they weigh 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:22.920 it down with the way it down with shipments of earth, 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:25.559 and that earth has earth worms in it, and so 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:27.960 they when they get to the New World, they just 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:30.360 dump that earth right so they can make room for 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:33.360 the tobacco exactly add its weight in tobacco. But then 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:35.400 you have all this dirt and with the in these 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:39.000 worms introduced to this new world. So what you're saying 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:42.240 here is it's kind of like terra forming. Yeah really, um, 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:45.440 I mean, man does an excellent job just just talking 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:48.880 about just how many factors are involved. There's one wonderful 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:51.920 little part partner I'm gonna read here where he really 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:55.840 sums in not not even specifically the worms or even 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:59.559 or even rolf here, but just the the overall movement 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:02.120 of people in their their things and how it changes 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:04.880 the world. He says two hundred and fifty million years ago, 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:07.520 the world contained a single land mass mass known to 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:12.560 scientists as Pangaea. Geologic forces broke this vast expanse into 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:16.600 into pieces, sundering Eurasia and the America's. Over time, the 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:19.240 two halves of the world developed widely different suites of 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:22.840 plants and animals. Columbus's signal accomplishment was, in the phrase 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:26.760 of historian Alfred Crosby, to re knit the torn seams 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:31.040 of Pangaea. So uh, I mean, the more you think 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:34.040 about it, like he points out that a lot of 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:36.560 these crops, a lot of these these signature dishes that 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:40.360 we we take for granted. You think about tomatoes in Italy, well, 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:42.959 it's because they moved there from somewhere else. They were 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:46.199 taken there by humans. Oranges in Florida, chocolates and Switzerland, 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:50.559 and of course hot peppers, and so many different culinary traditions, 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:53.040 like I point out Thai food. And this was something 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:56.400 I remember reading about when travel there years ago, is 0:13:56.440 --> 0:13:59.959 that you know all these signature hot, spicy thie dishes. Uh. 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:03.559 Thai cuisine was a dramatically different thing before the Portuguese 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:07.719 arrived and brought these aliens of species and so that's 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:09.360 what you have going on in North America. You have 0:14:09.640 --> 0:14:13.760 these alien humans bringing their alien species in an alien 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:16.600 way of working the land and using it, and it 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:19.160 just changes everything. And the earthworm is a huge part 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:21.840 of that because now the earthworm is is just all 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:26.480 over this huge segment of North America and uh, and 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:29.680 they're thriving there. They're they're in no danger of disappearing. 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:32.200 And that's true. They become invasive, right and even though 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:34.360 they're slow moving, it does take, you know, a couple 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:37.640 hundred years before people begin to realize what sort of 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:41.280 effect they're having. Because they are spreading, they're getting a foothold. 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:43.840 And a good example of this is the Chippewa National 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:47.200 Forest and this is in Minnesota, and they noticed that 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:51.440 the landscape was really changing dramatically. And so those leaves, 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:54.240 those twigs, the other plant debris. This is called duff 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:57.280 and um. As you had noted, the earthworms like to 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:00.240 munch on that. Well, previous to the earthworms, the was 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:04.680 really broken down by fungi, bacteria might and it was 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:08.040 a refuge for some small birds and animals. And it 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:11.080 also helped that that duff held in the moisture like 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:14.760 a sponge for other plants, and those are like the 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:19.440 middle growth plants of force. So we're talking about wildflowers, shrubs, 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:23.080 and then tree seedlings. So what happens when when the 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:26.440 humble earth firm is unleashed upon this landscape? Will they 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:28.840 began to remove all of that duff and so those 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:33.040 tree seedlings, those those are middle plantings no longer exist 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:36.280 and it changes that habitat for the other animals. And 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:38.480 of course that the problem here is that they're spread 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:41.359 even it's not just you know, a little columbus deposited 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:43.720 a big pile them in dirt and then that was 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:46.880 the end of the story. The story continues because fishermen 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:49.920 use them as baits, so they're introduced into lakes, rivers 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:54.520 and streams, and uh, farmers use them in composting, so 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:58.280 of course they're spread even more around lands that then 0:15:58.320 --> 0:16:01.920 began to encroach upon hardwood force. Yeah, and the crazy 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:03.840 thing too about earthworms is that unlike a lot of 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:08.120 invasive species that introduced a lot of these species will well, 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:10.080 they're introduced to an area and then they'll continue to 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:12.680 work themselves. They're more than happy to spread their numbers 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:16.400 across the lands. But but as Man points out, earthworms. 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:19.520 You you introduce earthworms and to say, your backyard, if 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:22.960 your backward yarded for some reason earthworm free, they make 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:25.400 they'll thrive in that that area, but they're not necessarily 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:28.800 going to expand beyond your backyard. They're very local. So 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:32.480 this is all on humans. This is all our again 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:36.400 using them for bait um, transplanting plants from one place 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:39.520 to another, moving soil from one place to another, and 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:43.400 eventually just creating a new nation underworm. You know, that 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:46.440 reminds me two of the anthropa scene episode that we did, 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:50.040 and we talked about how humans have changed the landscape 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:54.040 um so drastically and that we are so responsible more 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:59.720 than any other natural phenomenon for moving massive amounts of 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:02.720 dirt and earth all over the world. So if you 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:07.560 think beyond just even fishermen or you know, gardeners or 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:11.560 farmers using earthworms, you have to realize that any time 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:13.800 that we take dump trucks full of soil and move 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:17.280 them to one other place, than we're introducing earthworms as 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:20.560 an invasive species. Yeah, it's interesting too because Man also 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:24.600 points out that you know, to no one's surprise, uh, 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:27.600 this is this, Uh, this sort of fantasy world idea 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:31.439 of pocahonas and and the settlers doesn't match up with reality. 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:33.359 We tend to think of this idea that they arrive 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:36.040 in the New World and the and everything is just 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:41.200 this lush you know, avatar esque. Um, you know, untouched wilderness. 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:44.600 And then there are a few uh Native Americans moving 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:47.359 around almost unseen, you know, just a seamless part of 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:50.880 the environment. But but as it turns out, the Palatin 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:54.280 tribes people had already really done their part to change 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:56.560 to to to change the environment and keep it the 0:17:56.560 --> 0:18:00.040 way they liked it, such as using control burns to 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:03.560 clear out some of that underbrush and then constantly hunting 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:06.639 and gathering to to collect you know, the items that 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:09.080 they depended on for their diets. All right, so now 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:12.679 we have an idea of these suckers as a as 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:16.080 an invasive species. Have the conqueror worm, the conquering worm. 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:19.160 What about just what about this worm grunting thing? Well, 0:18:19.200 --> 0:18:21.040 you know, we should take a break. We'll take a 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:22.760 break before we get to the worm grunting. But stay 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:25.919 with us, because when we come back, um, humans and 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:28.720 non humans alike will call to the worm, and the 0:18:28.800 --> 0:18:44.600 worm shall rise up from the drought. All right, we're 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:47.920 back and we are talking about worm grunting, also known 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:50.359 but by a few other names that you may know 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:53.800 u the worm grunter as a worm charmer. You may 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:56.920 know him or her as a worm fiddler. You may 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:01.000 know this is worm snoring, But in Florida at least, 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:03.800 it's called worm grunting. And you can in fact find 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:07.760 this pastime throughout the southeastern United States and even in 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:11.280 the United Kingdom. Had you ever heard of worm grunting before? 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:14.600 I had not, But I think it's fascinating because we're 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:18.199 talking about here is driving a wooden steak into the 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:22.119 ground and then taking a flat metal rod across the 0:19:22.680 --> 0:19:27.000 top of it and creating a sort of bull frog 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:33.479 like grunting sound which emanates from this. Yeah, and just 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:35.840 that you have to imagine this setting, like here's this uh, 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:39.320 this woodsy Floridian going out and into the into the wilderness. 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:41.680 They're pounding the steak home and they're just sitting there 0:19:42.160 --> 0:19:45.160 moving the grunt and stick back and forth and then 0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:47.320 waiting for the worms to crawl up. It's true, like 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:50.960 a minute or so later, depending on the sort of 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:54.760 sound spectra that you create. Yeah, these worms emerge from 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:57.760 the ground and and it's a rooping iron. By the way, 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:00.280 I should point out that's that's the thing that they 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:04.960 move across the state iron. Yeah, okay, So what's cool 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:09.040 about this is that it's that sounds spectra that's made 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:15.080 that shares a similarity with burrowing moles. We have found, yes, 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:17.639 because for a lot of the worm grunters and the 0:20:17.680 --> 0:20:21.080 worm charmers elsewhere, they didn't necessarily understand the science of it. 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:24.359 Because you don't really have to understand why the worms 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:26.639 are crawling up. You realize that they're doing it, and 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:28.240 then you want to get in on the action. And 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:31.800 in fact, the two examples of worm grunters in in 0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:35.040 in nature that don't understand the science of what they're doing. 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:39.880 The wood turtle and some seagulls. Goals and wood turtles 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:44.479 also use worm grunting. The turtle especially is adorable doing 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:46.200 this because the turtle kind of does a little dance 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:48.600 on the ground and does the dance just right, and 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:50.359 then the worms come up and then he eats the worms. 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:53.879 And likewise the seagull that's the same thing. But what 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:56.120 is this what is the reason for it? Right? Well, 0:20:56.359 --> 0:20:58.520 the you know, the worm grunters of old might have 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:01.159 maybe thought it was magic. There was one theory at 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:04.720 one point that it was the idea that the grunting, 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:07.560 the tapping, or whatever kind of sounds you're making on 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:10.560 the soil, that they somehow sound like rain drops falling, 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:14.040 and the and the worms think, oh, the rain is coming. 0:21:14.080 --> 0:21:15.520 I need to get the higher ground so I don't 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:18.560 drown in the earth, which you know, we see this sometimes, right, 0:21:18.680 --> 0:21:21.640 there's a good rainfall and then a couple of worms appear. 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:25.440 But this, it turns out, is not actual reason why 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:27.840 worms will rise to the top when you make these 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:31.000 certain vibrations in the soil. Yeah, And in two thousand 0:21:30.960 --> 0:21:34.680 and eight, biologists kin A Catania and he set out 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:36.440 to look into this. So he went out, he did 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:40.399 did a full on scientific investigation, and he found that 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:44.600 the reason is, like you said, moles. So the mole 0:21:44.800 --> 0:21:50.159 in earthworm lore, of course, is the worm gobbler part excellence. 0:21:50.280 --> 0:21:53.400 He's the he's the the greatest foe. He is the 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:55.960 the ultimate enemy of worms. Yeah, no doubt, Like he 0:21:56.080 --> 0:21:59.560