In Bishop's recent post about cast-netting, mention was made about catching fishing worms for bait with an electrical generator. From a survival standpoint, worms are very useful little creatures. And not just on fish hooks. They can be used to bait fish traps, deadfalls, and snares for birds and small animals, and they can be eaten by people that choose not to starve to death. In many of the "survival shows" that were such a fad for a while, the contestants basically spent their time starving, unless they found edible plants. They made fish traps that failed to catch fish because they had no bait, snares that failed to catch rodents because they had no bait, and they also couldn't trap or snare birds because they had no bait. And some of them lost as much as 30 lbs. over their ten day "survival challenge" because every prey animal they went after was faster and smarter than they were. Earthworms are neither fast nor smart, and they can be found in large numbers almost anywhere. An acre of fertile soil can easily support one million earthworms. However, digging the lot of them out would not be practical in terms of the time and energy required. For one thing, that would be 24,375 lbs. (11,056.31kg) of earthworms. Yep: Just a little over twelve Imperial tons. An adult nightcrawler typically weighs about 0.39 ounces (11 grams). At about 70% protein, earthworms are much more nutritious than 93% lean beef, which is only about 21.2% protein. Ten adult nightcrawlers, weighing 3.90 ounces in total, would have almost three and a half times the amount of protein in the average fast-food “quarter-pound” (4 oz) hamburger patty—if it ever actually weighed a quarter pound in the first place. Soil with only 5 nightcrawlers per square foot is considered to be poorly populated. A more normal population is about 24 per square foot. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to quickly harvest dozens of earthworms without doing any digging at all? It can be done, and you don't need an electrical generator. All you need is a Worm Grunter. A Worm Grunter is very simple. It consists of two sticks. One is the “rooper”. It’s plain, about 12” (30 cm) long, and about 3/4 inch (19 mm) in diameter. The dimensions are not critical. The rooper does all the work when it comes to worm grunting. The other stick is the “stob”. It’s just like the rooper, except that it’s about 24” (60 cm) long, and pointed at the bottom so it can be easily pushed into the soil. It usually has a smooth hand grip at the top, and a foot-long (30 cm) series of coarse notches carved into one side. In use, the stob is pushed about 6” (15 cm) into the ground, and held steady with one hand. Then, with the other hand, the rooper is rattled up and down the notches in the stob. The rapid clicking noise created by roopin’ the stob sends vibrations into the soil that imitate the vibrations made by a burrowing mole. The earthworms feel those vibrations, panic, and flee to the surface to avoid being eaten. That’s all there is to it. It really is that simple. You can usually harvest dozens of earthworms in a matter of minutes. Just don’t stop roopin’ the stob until the worms come completely out of their burrows, otherwise they may suddenly retreat back inside and escape as you reach for them. Earthworms, BTW, can be eaten raw (as any fish will attest), but it is MUCH better to clean and cook them, if at all possible. That’s because earthworms are, essentially, a slender, meaty, hollow high-protein snack food with a solid core that consists almost entirely of gritty black dirt and fresh worm-poop. Yum. It’s hard to decide which tastes better. To clean the worms, and kill any bacteria, they can be boiled for one minute and rinsed, three times in succession, changing the water each time. Alternatively, they will self-purge if kept alive in a shaded container for a day. Then they can simply be rinsed and cooked. Use either method or both, as time and hunger permits. The cleaned worms can be roasted over hot ashes or on hot rocks, steamed in leaves (Hawaiian-style), pan fried, or made into a delectable worm soup along with whatever edible wild plants Nature may provide. They can even be laid out on flat rocks and sun-dried into prime worm jerky for a chewy all-day snack that’s far better for you than bubblegum. Bon appétit! Worm Grunting: Note: Good video, but don't wear your knife like that guy. That's just stupid. If his hand can pull the knife out, so can a little extra gravity. Like when he drops down out of a tree , or jumps across or over anything. Tip: Clear away the leaf litter first, so you can see the worms emerge.
They taste like shit anyway you do it. But it's high protein shit, edit. I admittedly have not rinsed them 3 times given in a survival situation clean water is pretty tasking to produce.
I am looking for some good worm recipes but not finding anything that really looks inviting. Spaghetti seems like it would be redundant, maybe a delicious worm loaf?
I guess, if you're going to slurp them, you should probably start at the head end. I know that when you eat a dead rat it makes a really big difference whether you hold it by the tail or by the nose...
I occasionally make edibles, brownies being the most notorious; my neighbor wanted one until I told her that I used fried worms instead of walnuts.
Worms need to be Purge like a clam that means washed and placed in a container with no dirt for a day or to then washed again.
