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The Star

September 6, 2013

Worm Rodeo
Families work at trying to coax worms to the surface during last year's
worm rodeo held by Grace United Church in Barrie.

Blessed are the worm charmers, for they shall inherit the earth

By: Katie Daubs
Photo by: Barb Mercer

It is perhaps a strange form of ministry to encourage families to coax worms from the earth.

Barrie’s Grace United Church is the progressive sort, where members know they can’t survive on the old methods. So here’s a new one: worm charming, where teams are assigned a plot of soil, and use any manner of vibration to entice worms from their cozy damp home.

“I think we’re trying to move away from the traditional roles of what churches are supposed to be,” says church member Jack Brown, explaining that the church aims to be a community hub. “I don’t know if it fits well with the big guy upstairs. We have to be more relevant to the community.”

Last year, the church held their inaugural worm rodeo at Chappell Farms. Brown’s friend Barb Richards, a self-described “old worm picker from way back” is a local auctioneer and source of the idea.

“I’d heard about it in the States. I knew it was pretty popular there, I did some research and after I threw out the idea, they just went crazy for it,” she says. “Certainly it’s going through its growing pains; we’re just starting.”

Last year’s summoning was stymied by a dry summer and inhospitable parking lot soil. After a certain point, the cheerful organizers decided to let families dig a bit. In more competitive worm-charming circles, this rule violation would likely be considered sacrilegious.

“I was actually astounded (that) when they dug they actually found worms, because I didn’t think there’d be worms within 500 feet, it was just like cement,” Brown says.

Several years ago, Kenneth Catania, a biology professor at Vanderbilt University, went to Florida to study the phenomenon with local bait collectors who use the “worm grunting” method, which involves pounding a wooden stake into the ground and rubbing a flat piece of metal on top of the stake. (The effect creates a grunting noise.) Locals Gary and Audrey Revell, who helped Catania with his study, make their living this way — on a good day, collecting thousands of worms in the forest before 10:30 a.m.

“Gary’s husky. He leans on that piece of iron, he’s on his knees, he leans on that thing and rubs it across with his weight on it, and he grunts, he’s gotten into the habit ... the grunting is coming from him,” says Bill Lowrie, president of the Sopchoppy Preservation and Improvement Association, the group that organizes the Sopchoppy Worm Gruntin Festival. (“Note the deliberate absence of the “g” in grunting,” he later emails.)

In his research, Catania explained that moles create vibrations in the ground when they dig their tunnels, and earthworms have an ingrained escape response to avoid death. Wood turtles and herring gulls have mimicked this — and Catania’s recordings suggest “grunting” humans unknowingly do the same thing.

There are many ways to go about the mimicry.

“When I was out putting up flyers for the festival, I went into a bar during the daytime in a community not too far from here … this old grizzled guy at the bar said, ‘Hell, when I go out there I just take my chainsaw and stick it down into the ground,’” Lowrie recalls.

Last year’s second place Barrie champions used a more family-friendly combination of pots, recycling bins and a shovel.

“When we heard about it, we immediately went on Google and discovered a whole world of worm charming that we had no idea even existed,” says Heather Turner, reached via conference call with the team’s key charmers, her children Adelaide and Hudson. “It seems to be really popular in the U.K., probably because the soil is so rich and wet over there.”

In England, champions have been known to collect upwards of 500 worms. In Barrie, the Turner family secured second place with five worms.

“I’m going to use my, uh, what could I use?” says 8-year-old Adelaide. “My xylophone!”

“Oh that’s a good idea,” says Turner. “Or your harmonica, that could work. How about you Hudson?”
“A shovel,” he says.
“No, you can’t dig the worms,” his sister reminds him.

“It’s an interesting task for little ones; it doesn’t happen in the first 30 seconds, you have to have some patience, and you have to stick with it,” Turner says. “These are good life skills.”

In hosting an event, Barrie joins communities like Sopchoppy, Fla., and Willaston, United Kingdom, where the spectacle is governed by “The International Federation of Charming Worms and Allied Pastimes” which also looks after “other zany sports such as indoor hand gliding, underwater Ludo and ice tiddly-winks.”

Cathy Nesbitt, a worm-lover who runs a vermicomposting business in Bradford, says it may seem “kind of cruel and unusual,” but she is satisfied worms are not harmed. As per the rules, worms are placed in cups of peat moss and added back into the ground after the count.

“I think this type of activity connects parents and kids, and it makes worms fun. Anything that connects people to nature is fun,” she says.

Nesbitt was the grand champion at a worm charming event in nearby Shelburne in 2011, charming 14 worms by plopping a pitchfork into the soil and rocking a piece of corrugated steel against it.

“It was a little bit embarrassing, having a worm company and everything,” she says of the win.

Brown and the team at Grace United hope the worms will be plentiful this Saturday, given the summer’s rainfall and a softer plot of land. Admission is free, but competing teams have to be sponsored to the tune of $50. There are other events, including an auction, with proceeds going toward the church and the Senior Wish Association. The charming begins after 11 a.m.

“This isn’t your usual typical everyday church … certainly religion is a very important part, but boy oh boy, they just open up the doors to the community,” says Richards. “Their place is busy all the time, and they don’t ask anything in return.”

Just that you refrain from performance-enhancing drugs, like water and shovels.
Doors open at 10 a.m. at Chappell Farms in Barrie. Visit wormrodeo.com for more information.

 

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Follow this link to photos of 2011 Worm Charming Championship held in Shelburne

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