Most of us wouldn't give earthworms a second glance, but not emma Sherlock
Earthworms are her passion you see Emma is curator of worms at the natural history Museum in London
not only that she's president of the earthworm society of britain as
[Emma] is about to reveal. There's far more to the humble earthworm than first meets the eye
Most people think we've only got one species of earthworm [in] the uk, but that's really not true
We actually have about 27 different species
We've got stumpy green ones
And they're bright green stripy ones these ones when they stretch out you'll really see the stripes on them
We call them tiger worms because of the strikes we've got pink ones. We've got grey ones
We've got ones with black heads
We've got some deep red ones some a really large sort of 30 centimeters in length
Right down to some adults being just a few centimetres so massive diversity
Surprisingly scientists like Emma know very little about the distribution of these different earthworm species
Sampling the worms in your garden can help fill in these gaps
The best way to sample earthworms really. It's just to dig a hole in [the] ground so I don't really dig around the plot
Pull out the square
I've dug and then just go through it and try and see how many earthworms are in here and in a plot this size
Potentially it could be 50 100. Maybe even if it was a really really rich batch
Maybe even up to 200 earthworms
So in an area the [size] of a football field [you] [could] get maybe as many as 2 million earthworms
All gardeners may that earthworms are really really good for the soil
But the reason that is is because they are borrowing down into the soil. They're letting air in letting carbon dioxide out
Earthworms are the recyclers of the planet?
They are breaking down all the organic rubbish and releasing all those nutrients back into the soil to be used again [by] the plants
Without earthworms in our soils life will pretty quickly dry up
Earthworms aren't just good for the soil. They're juicy muscular bodies are perfect food for lots of other wildlife
Birds just can't resist them
[Badgers] gorge on them
60% of their diet is made up of worms and
Moles well they can eat 50 grams of worms a day
It does seem they get rather picked on by other animals
one neat Little trick
I'm gonna Share with you is something to actually get the deep bearing worth worms to the surface
Without the heavy digging, and that's this what I've done here is mix mustard powder with water
Maybe around 2 tablespoons per liter in a half bottle and then pour it on the ground
What this technique does is it just irritates the worm slightly so they come up to the surface?
Earthworm Behavior is also fascinating not least the way they reproduce I'll let Emma explain
Earthworms are hermaphrodites that means they have male and female parts
But they still sexually reproduce so they find another earthworm kind of glue themselves
Together pass each other sperm and then when they've broken off
They then each produce a cocoon which then sits in the soil until the conditions are right and then the babies Emerge
I
love earthworms because they're so
Amazingly important for our soils. There's such fascinating animals and when you actually start to look at them
It's amazing the diversity
And variety of them the sizes the colors the different jobs that they all do and yet no one's out there looking at them
And they're working so hard under our feet [I]
Hope you see them in a different light now
you
