Worms herding instinct

[The Garbage Guru]

Here is a link Lawrence Taylor(Bok)provided.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8604000/8604584.stm

 I did something along these lines a good while back,and called it the Hantsel and Gretel effect.If you wanted to know where the highest concentrations of worms were,you used oatmeal.You could also add some food,and watch them clear a path through the oatmeal to the food.A bit harder once you get large concentrations of worms.So what i did was get someone to design me a maze.Haven't built it yet.But this one is made of fiberglass with several end result chambers.Still have to locate a red piece of Lexan to filter the light so it doesn't affect the worms.The Lexan bolts down where there is no other route for the worms to use except the maze.Are worms of a certain specie smarter than other worms? I'm thinking PE would simply cross over eventually if they could.

 Would worms over a period of time,decide to take a route to a certain food?Or go to all of them?These are just some of the tests you can do with something like that.Think outside the box!

[Matthew Wilson]

The article was very fascinating. Thanks

[Rich Feiller]

i remember how difficult it was when taking Ethology in college in '74 explaining to the professor how wrong he was in his teaching and how endless our arguments were. he could not grasp that anything other then the higher life forms being able to posses social behavior through genetic transference.

[Michelle Craigmiles]

Do the worms eat the oatmeal, too?  Great discussion.

[George]

Betsy, did you give them the oatmeal dry or did you wet it ?

I have so much of that stuff and I was wondering if they would like it.

[lawrence Taylor]

Glad  you  liked the  first  one,  here is another...a  bit  scientific, but  interesting.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone....

[The Garbage Guru]

Another good link Bok! Brings up more questions for me.When we receive worms,are we better to leave them in a worm ball? Is that why the 10 pounds i received,even though my flowthru had gaps at the bottom,i only lost one worm?Is that why worms are currently killing themselves on my driveway from my yard?(Think Whale herds here!)Is it better to harvest worms from feeding balls,rather than through a mechanical harvester,where you get a real mix of worms?

 Have to read that link more than once when i get the chance!

[George]

Now that is an interesting read especially this:

" self-assembled social structures in earthworms"

I will also need to read it again and try to absorb more of it.

I always knew that worms were kewl and sentient beings :p

[Rich Feiller]

thanks Bok,

the models reflect what is evident in compost piles and manure piles. even though the piles are large the majoriety of EF's are found in clusters. always stragglers throughout but for the most part in clusters. so is this primarily for companionship, reproduction (are the stragglers not in a reproductive mood), or protection?

so why are some species more likely to head out given the opportunity such as EH's and PE's? i had 5lbs of EH's last night trying to get back to SC, soon as i turned on the light they all went back into the bins. :-)

[Rich Feiller]

i found the paper very well done and informative. i am glad to see the ethologist moving away from the romantic animals such as lions, tigers, dogs, and elephants to some of the lessor life forms that are so important to our very existance.

i am looking forward to seeing more research on the "why" method. the "how" works great for qualitative and quantitative analysis, as a future worm farmer i need to know why they behave as they do and how to deal with it. altering behavior patterns, removing stimilus that would result int he wandering. the EF's are the least to wander so the information would be especially important pertaining to PE's and EH's.

in relation to this research the another link you gave Bok of the invasive LR's and how they have dispersed ties in with this research study.

thanks again.

[George]

Since it seems like the worms tend to cluster together, does that argue for putting food in just one spot ?
I had thought to spread it thinly over about 3/4 of the surface area, leaving the worms one corner as a rest area.