Earthworms contribute to 6.5% of global grain production | Hacker News Reader

Earthworms contribute to 6.5% of global grain production

phys.org

129 pointswglb42 comments

Some years ago I was planting an Imperial Fritillaria bulb, a flower shaped a little like an UFO mothership. Specially with those strange big spots inside

The species needs a lot of drainage so I added sand and started to mix it in the dirt with my hands. Light was fading fast in the sunset. To my surprise some short cylinders started glowing from nowhere. It was poisonous green; kryptonite green. Little 2-3cm bars glowing on the kind of fluorescent green that everybody associates with the word radioactive; all around the pot and too close to my fingers. Yuck! I removed my hand really fast and, to my surprise, the lights started to vanish slowly. I touched the soil again and some lights appeared here and there. That stuff was alive!. It was an E.T. moment.

That day I learned that even the humble earthworms can be awesome, specially the bioluminiscent ones.

Guess their evolution worked in your case, although seems like a risky strategy in the long term if predators get used to the idea.

Releasing luciferasa undergroung when disturbed Is probably aposematic. A way to claim "I taste awful" to rodents and moles, I suppose.

There are a few species in US also, like Diplocardia, that glows in electric blue.

Where was this? I've never seen bioluminescence in earthworms in the uk. Very curious, ta

Europe

Don't tell Monsanto before they genetically engineer them and replace the natural population of worms with patented ones that have to be killed and replaced each year.

So, about that…

https://www.sciencealert.com/worlds-most-popular-herbicide-c...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8027525/

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep12886

https://www.sbstatesman.com/2014/03/04/under-the-microscope-...

So what you saying isn’t so far fetched.

Tell, who? Monsanto closed up shop five years ago.

If by “closed up shop” you mean “was acquired by Bayer” you’d be spot on.

They still make all the glyphosphate roundup products, just under a new, kinder name now.

https://www.bayer.com/media/en-us/bayer-closes-monsanto-acqu...

Yes, when businesses close up shop their assets are acquired by other businesses. Was there something to suggest that they went into the landfill?

It wasn’t a bankruptcy asset purchase but a corporate merger. It’s objectively incorrect to suggest they “closed up shop.” That’s just… not what happened.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/06/04/616772911...

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/07/germanys-bayer-closes-monsan...

Where was a bankruptcy stated? You’re reaching into weird places. Nothing about closing a business equates to bankruptcy.

No business was closed by any cause.

No business was closed? Many businesses were closed. The majority of businesses that were open at some point were eventually closed.

I expect you are trying to say something else. What might it be?

You should see someone about your brain damage.

Not sure of what you were trying to say? Or what is the basis of this of off-topic and fallacious remark? It is not clear.

thanks worms, thorms

Is this a reference to Look Around You? Are you Iron DeHaviland?

What *are* worms?

This. This are the kind of things that make a difference in science.

Not the extra ads on social media? /s

Spider plants are great cover for a compost bucket with composting worms in case you are getting into composting.

What makes a spider plant a great ccompost cover?

Spider plants are good for obscuring things because they grow downwards, covering whatever their pot is above?

Despite some benefit, they were still an invasive species in North America a few centuries ago.

I think that depends. I believe some areas had some species of earthworms. Others didn't have any.

Lumbricus terrestris was native to Europe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_earthworms_of_North_A...

Weird to consider the history of ecology, as even the Eastern grey squirrel is considered an invasive species in my area.

we need a less pedantic hobby =)

Not sure what was pedantic. I was merely pointing out that the claim of North America having no native earthworms was not correct.

Was intended to sound self-reflective, rather than accusatory friend =)

After results like this, I would expect more farmers to try seeding their fields with all manner of worms.

Worms will come, and multiply, all by themselves. IF they have stuff to munch on.

The great thing about worms is they mix & aerate the soil without disturbing its overall structure. Unlike tilling (which imho should be avoided as much as possible).

From the (limited) gardening I've done in my life, some lessons learned:

1) Try to keep something growing at all times, even if it's just grass, a cover crop, or fast growing in-between like lettuce. Even weeds are better than bare soil (imho).

2) Organic material! Don't remove any if it's not harvest, add more if possible. Wood chips, twigs, fall leaves, straw, grass, organic kitchen scraps, even cardboard, as long as it's clean (100% "cold" compostable, no plastic bits etc) it's welcome. Not in the least 'cause it gives the worms something to chew on.

This is one of many ways where modern agriculture fails: harvest = entire crop cleared in 1 swoop. And sometimes the waste (like straw) also has uses so often that's removed as well. Leaving very little organic matter in the field. Not to mention repeated destruction of the soil structure.

Funny things is science knows the soil below our feet about as 'well' as deep oceans... Many of the critters down there only classified by family, relatively few by individual species. Let alone their lifecycle or feeding habits. It's a free-for-all but unknown world down there.

Most US farmers rely on tillage, which arguably[1] damages earthworm populations.

I'm curious though because people noted in other threads that earthworms are basically an invasive species. If so, did Native Americans practice no-till, and if so how did that work w/out worms?

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01671...

Is there a single error bar in the paper? It seems like a guess

Just recently I was thinking about the expression “Early bird gets the worm.” First off, who even likes to eat worms? Gross. What’s the corollary for night owls? “Night owl gets the rat?” I don’t want to eat rats either. And what type of bird represents everyone else? The Pigeon? Pigeons eat whatever they want. Why am I waking up early for worms and staying up late for rats? Pigeons are eating best out of all the birds and they wake up whenever the hell they want.

> “Early bird gets the worm.” First off, who even likes to eat worms?

Birds. Hence the saying. The thing about metaphors is that they're not literal.

What’s a kind of bird that goes woosh?

Actually metaphors literally are literal. That's why dictionaries can change the meaning of literally to mean figuratively, instead of understanding figurative language.

It is: The early bird gets the worm, but the second rat gets the cheese.

Who do not like jelly worms? Pigeons has high parasite load, due to cramped living, and feed from dumpster cans. Not cool

The corollary is “the early worm gets the bird”

The early worm should have stayed in bed.

Don’t you mean, “the early worm gets the Fremen?”

I could have my stories confused, but I swear there was a story about worms.

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