like many people i'm sure you think of
worms as what they do down below or at
the surface of the soil. a few people might
think of them as living in the leaf piles
and in parts of logs that are decaying or
other piles of rotting organic materials.
which at least is perhaps a few inches above
ground.

then there comes the part of worm life
that takes place above ground, often enough
four or more inches above ground.

i'm not sure exactly why they do it, but
it is likely a new territory searching aspect
where they will crawl up the sides of things.
at night mostly. also the time of mating and
wandering for several species, and the time
of a lot of activity near the mouths of their
burrows for the night crawlers (who don't tend
to wander from their burrows much at all).

the thought came to me last night that they
also are spreading their preferred bacterial
species around and innoculating plants above
ground with these. in effect creating a
beneficial micro climate with some of their
bacterial friends.

an interesting side thought as it shows how
one rather small and mostly ignored organism
can have such large effects over a part of
their environment that we might not normally
consider a part of their domain.


songbird