News From the Field
Florida's 'Worm Grunters' Collect Bait Worms by Inadvertently Imitating Mole Sounds

October 13, 2008

Vanderbilt biologist Ken Catania has discovered the secret of "worm grunting"--the Florida practice of driving a wooden stake into the ground and rubbing it with a long piece of steel to produce a grunting sound that drives nearby earthworms to the surface, where they can be collected for bait. The worm grunters are unknowingly mimicking the sounds that the worm's arch-enemy, the mole, causes while burrowing. Full Story

Source
Vanderbilt University

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