Mind Your Step--L.A. Is Again Awash With Earthworms

For six long years, they bided their time, nameless in the shadowy underground. Then this year, the dry spell ended. And the salute to the earthworm echoed once more o’er the land.

“Yuck!”

It ricocheted from driveway to driveway, cul-de-sac to cul-de-sac.

“Worm weather!” came the bulletin at Ocean View Elementary School in Whittier.

Already, it was reported, Chris and Amanda were pelting playmates with the squirmers. Down at the park, toddlers were collecting them by the pudgy handful from the tetherball court. And all over town, the search was on for coffee cans--the better to preserve fresh bait.

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It has been a long time since the earthworm--a.k.a. Lumbricus rubellus --has so generously graced the sidewalks of Los Angeles. The species native to this region can burrow up to 10 feet to elude dry air, experts say, and for the past six years that is where it has mostly stayed, thanks to the persistent drought.

Some parents were beginning to fear that their children would be in their eighth-grade biology labs brandishing dissecting tools before they met their first worms. But with all this rain, parents need no longer be concerned.

Just ask Bruce Davis, principal of Rosemead’s Ralph Waldo Emerson Elementary School.

“We have one hell of a lot of worms here,” Davis confirms. “They’re everywhere, and children are doing things with them--all sorts of things. They are experimenting with them, smashing them, pulling them. Tying them in knots. Throwing them. We suspect that some have eaten them.

“But I look at this with a benign eye. Because when I was a child, I was sent to (the principal’s) office and punished for trying to put worms down a girl’s back, and I have since concluded that worm play does not deserve punishment.”

Why, just stand in your puddled driveway and look down. You’re surrounded! There they are, hundreds of the fleshy little things. Oh what fun it will be picking your way back to your door! Careful now. One false move and . . . squish!

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At least one Southern Californian, however, is not at all grossed out by these icky times--Richard Morhar, proprietor of the Worm Concern. Headquartered in Simi Valley, in the shadow of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, the Worm Concern is a recycling plant of sorts.

Each day, millions of Morhar’s “livestock,” as he calls them, munch their way through tons of grass clippings and tree trimmings that cities don’t want to haul to landfills.

What goes in as compost, Morhar said, comes out as a rich soil additive.

“They create worm castings,” he explained. “It’s their poop. And it’s nature’s perfect fertilizer.”

Rain, Morhar exulted, just improves productivity at the Worm Concern.

“They just love the rainwater, ‘cause it’s so pure,” Morhar said. “The rain brings ‘em up, ‘cause that’s the time the worm can survive on top of the ground. The moisture in the air allows them to walk around and migrate, and right now they’re migrating--and eating--galore.”

Reports of worm pelting, worm smashing and other forms of worm abuse sadden Morhar, as do the complaints he occasionally gets from homeowners, who phone for advice on how to keep worms from crawling en masse into their pool filters and clogging things up. (The best deterrent, he says, is outdoor lights.)

“Worms are welcome visitors,” Morhar said. “They don’t do any harm, and they do the soil a whole lot of good.”

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Nonetheless, the Worm Concern does sell a cookbook for those who want to make the most of these rainy times.

Because up to 72% of a worm’s dry weight is protein, Morhar said, worms are the perfect ingredient for such delicacies as Worm Surprise Cake and Worm Omelets.

Or how about a main course--such as Earthworm Pattie Supreme?

Just mix 1 1/2 pounds ground earthworms, 1/2 cup melted butter, 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind, 1 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon white pepper. Stir in 2 tablespoons plain soda water. Now shape quickly into patties. Dip the patties first into beaten egg and then dry bread crumbs, then fry in 1 tablespoon butter for 10 minutes, turning once.

Transfer the patties to a hot serving dish, and stir 1 cup sour cream into the skillet in which they were cooked. Heat the sour cream thoroughly and pour over the patties.

Serve with plain boiled potatoes.

And then, after every plate has been cleaned, divulge the identity of the mystery meat.

You can be sure your guests will reward you with a hearty:

“Yuck!”