Posted on 06/07/2015 4:34:44 AM PDT by JoeProBono
DENISON, Texas, - Rangers at a Texas park said earthworms gathering in clumped "herds" in the middle of a road looked like someone had dumped spaghetti from their car.
Eisenhower State Park Superintendent Ben Herman said rangers checking back roads at the Denison park May 29 found earthworms fleeing storms had formed into balls in a straight line down the middle of the road.
Texas Parks and Wildlife shared video of the worm balls on YouTube.
Rangers said they thought the clumps were spaghetti until they got close enough to poke at them.
"We're still puzzled why they decided to line up in the middle of the road," Herman told ABC News. "Even our biologist doesn't know why they're spaced so well and in the line."
Officials said the worms may have formed into the balls, or herds, so they could share the drier portions of pavement, or they may have formed herds because they mistook the sound of the rain for the noise of predators beating down on the ground.
"We were all fascinated by what happened," Herman said. "It was pretty entertaining to watch the worms do their thing."
It was to seek the place where moisture would last the longest in my opinion. Between the yellow lines where water might pool bounded by the relatively waterproof yellow lines. The other parts of the road were sloped and would dry faster.
More proof of global worming!
Perhaps with the ground being repeatedly so saturated by heavy rains the middle of the road being the highest, driest point as a place of refuge? Very strange indeed.
Also I would adopt a few mounds and give them a nice new home in the garden and compost bin.
Excuse me whilst i prepare the salad. :)
Good analysis. Very creepy phenomenon.
Just before a nice plate of fried tarantula and chicken with long tail!
Catfish bait!
That region had copious rainfall and flooding most of April and May. The earthworms were trying to not drown, but once up on the pavement you could be right about conserving moisture or the pavement became too hot for them to crawl back off.
Would have been smart to gather them up and take em fishing.
My stomach just turned. Seriously... you are a bad, bad boy, Joe. :)
I’m thinking about writing up a proposal and asking the government to give me a million dollars to find out why they do this.
I think I’ll title the proposal “Earthworms and Disastrous Global Warming Effects Coupled with Micro-Aggression of Racist Texas Public Works Departments.”
I think they like yellow
Where was that taken? Apparently we have large earthworms here in Idaho up in the Palouse, but I don’t know if they get THAT big.
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