Earthworms + Kids = Happiness, Mostly

Who doesn't love earthworms? They're harmless, touchable, beneficial creatures and my children have always dug them up with glee. I like to see robins gobble them, knowing that there can be between one and two million earthworms per acre of rich soil.

In order to learn more about worms up close we ordered a Worm Vue Wonders earthworm habitat kit.

Setting up the supplies:

Arranging the necessary layers in the habitat:

The container of worms, which we had mailed away for and arrived that day. These are the Eisenia fetida variety:

Here they've been transferred to their new and roomier home (looking down into the top of the habitat from above):

They're kind of stinky, so be prepared as J. and K. were:

The worms are settled in their habitat, but we're going to take some out for use in experiments (don't worry--they're not harmed! :-):

Friends who also created the same worm habitat come over to share in some earthworm investigation. And guess what we discovered? The worms had babies! A baby worm is just barely visible to the lower left of the adult worm. It's tiny and white and wriggling and the only reason it shows up at all is because it has some brown dirt on it:

We concluded our quick experiments and moved on to a different kind of worm discovery...a Worms and Dirt treat! Deb surprised the children with a rather realistic layering of chocolate pudding, whipped cream, crushed Oreo cookies, and gummy worms:

Wow! Are those real?

Perhaps these treats were just a little too realistic! This little one looked down into her cup and wondered whether those weren't real worms in real dirt!

And you know what? As the crushed Oreos settled somewhat into the soft whipped cream and pudding, the gummy worms shifted slightly and it just looked a little too much like the real thing oozing its way through loose soil.

Best not to look, and just use your taste buds!

And now we'll continue to care for our worms and their habitat until it is consistently above 40 F degrees outside, at which time they'll be transferred to a much roomier habitat and have to avoid becoming the robins' lunch.

Comments

[brad]

Oh, now there's an idea--I can just feed them to the worms. Then I don't have to wait for weeks to put them out. Lol.

And...you've officially grossed me out--here I was wanting more land, only to find out I will have millions more earthworms! Blech!

Just kidding. We had a wonderful time discovering earthworms with your family.

[Melissa]

Ok! That just looks too fun for words! Especially those treats.:) Thanks for sharing this and inspiring me!

[Mom In Oklahoma]

Very cool. What is the white stuff?