Worm Grunting

File this under “I learned something today”: Worm grunting is the practice of luring earthworms out of the ground.

Per Wikipedia, worm grunting “generally refers to the use of a ‘stob,’ a wooden stake that is driven into the ground, and a ‘rooping iron’ which is used to rub the stob.” That’s in contrast to worm fiddling, which “also uses a wooden stake but utilises a dulled saw which is dragged along its top.”

The Wikipedia article goes on to note, “Techniques vary from sprinkling the turf with water, tea and beer to acupuncture, music or just ‘twanging’ with a garden fork. In some organized competitions, detergents and mechanical diggers have been banned.”

Here is a brief video on the subject.

And for those wondering how I came to know about worm grunting...

I was trying What Do You Suggest?, a site that shows Google’s suggested topics given an initial letter or word. I clicked for a random word and got worm. Out of the suggestions, grunting immediately caught my eye. In turn, its suggestions looked like this:

That prompted a few minutes’ additional research on Wikipedia and Google, which led to this posting.