earthworms

Teams from OPAL went to the World Worm Charming Championship in Willaston (Cheshire) on Saturday. This annual event has been happening since 1980, and involves "charming" worms out of the ground without using water or chemicals. Each team has a 3x3m area which they have 30 minutes to get as many worms out of as possible.

This picture shows Emma Sherlock, president of the newly formed Earthworm Society, demonstrating her charming technique...Emma's team managed to charm 51 worms, which we thought was very impressive compared to the measly 6 we managed.

However, this was nothing compared to the winners, who broke the world record by charming a collosal 567 worms!! I don't know how they had time to collect them all!

After the counting of worms had finished, the worms were tipped into a trench and we were allowed in to have a look through and identify the different species of worms.

Dissapointingly we only found 3 different species - Lob worms (Lumbricus terrestris), Redhead worms (Lumbricus rubellus) and Black-headed worms (Aporrectodea longa). But what the worms lacked in diversity, they certainly made up in numbers - in total, a staggering 21,797 worms were charmed out of the ground!

I'm already looking forward to next year. Must go, I've got to practice my charming technique!

A few months ago I knew next to nothing about earthworms - not a great situation to be in considering part of my job is to help groups do the OPAL Soil and Earthworm survey!

So I decided I'd better swat up. Lucy, who works for OPAL at the NHM , kindly pointed me in the direction of UCLAN Earthworm Research Group - this website has some great photographs of earthworms and some fascinating wormy facts. 

The UCLAN website whet my appetite for earthworms (not literally, I hasten to add), so I got a couple of books out of the library on worms, and learnt a bit more about these amazing creatures. Did you know that they have 5 hearts? I guess this is because they are very long in relation to their thickness, and it must be hard work pumping blood all the way to their back end.

Another interesting fact is that earthworms can live for 4-6 years! Sadly the common belief that an earthworm cut in half makes two earthworms isn't actually true, and unfortunately we've chopped quite a few in half whilst doing the OPAL survey! Sometimes the head end of the worm will survive, if it hasn't been too badly damaged, and they can actually regrow some of their segments, which I think is pretty impressive!

As the ground warms up, worms become more active, so if you've not already done your OPAL survey, now is the time to get out and discover these amazing creatures!

Discovering worms at Heeley City Farm (Sheffield) with members of the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens

The soil and earthworm survey has begun. You can now take part in one of the nation’s biggest public nature surveys and learn all about earthworms and the world they live in.

Your results will help scientists build a national record of earthworm populations and soil types across England.

Everything you need to take part, including full instructions and an earthworm identification key, can be found on the website.

Once you’ve completed the survey, upload your findings onto the OPAL website and you'll be able to view your contribution on our interactive map.

If you want to learn a bit more about earthworms before you head out into the field, check out our online earthworm guide, which includes profiles on all the earthworms being recorded in the survey.

We hope you enjoy taking part in this survey.

Survey events
Some of the OPAL regions are organising public events where you can take part in the survey and benefit from expert guidance and knowledge. Be sure to check your regional page to see what’s happening near you.