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Article: Grunting for worms.
- Article from:
- Science News for Kids
- Article date:
- October 29, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Earthworms make great fishing bait, but they can be tough to collect. Simply digging in the dirt is a dirty and inefficient way to gather worms.
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Instead, worm collectors in the southeastern United States have found a much quicker--and cleaner--strategy. All they do is rub a piece of iron across a wooden stake in the ground. The motion produces vibrations in the ground that sound like grunting noises. Remarkably, those sounds cause gaggles of earthworms to wriggle to the surface.
The technique is called worm grunting, and it might seem like magic. But, for the first time, a scientist has studied why it works.
The ...