Interview with Amy Stewart
from the San Jose Mercury News, April 9, 2004
Wonderful worms: Ex-Santa Cruz Author Gets Down to Earth to Reveal Role of Wigglers in Soil Ecosystem. By Holly Hayes
Amy Stewart's new book about earthworms offers a fascinating journey into an underground world where blind, deaf, spineless creatures have a profound impact on our ecosystem.
Worms, Stewart writes in "The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms,'' (Algonquin Books, 223 pps., $23.95) plow the soil, fight plant diseases, clean up pollution and turn ordinary dirt into gardener's gold. And they make "the ultimate garden pet.''
Stewart took a break from a jam-packed book tour to chat about her favorite subject. The former Santa Cruz resident -- who recently moved to Eureka with husband Scott, two cats and several thousand earthworms -- will make a swing through the Bay Area this month.
Q You spent a couple of years studying worms. When people look at you funny and ask why, what do you say?
A How did you know people look at me funny? Actually, you're right. When people ask me what I'm writing a book about and I say “earthworms,” it's a real conversation stopper. But you know what? Once people recover, they all seem to have an earthworm story to tell me.
I wrote this book for the same reason a lot of writers write the books they do. I wanted to read a broader book about worms -- not just a how-to book about composting, and not a dry science text, but an interesting and, I hope, funny account of worms in the world and at home.
Q The work of Charles Darwin is woven through your book. Describe some of the experiments he conducted.
A Darwin was an old man when he turned his attention to earthworms. His book on worms, “The Formation of Vegetable Mould,” was his last book and a surprisingly popular one. He had genuine affection for earthworms. He held candles up to their bodies to observe how they avoided the light. He set out little taste tests for them -- cabbage leaves, rose petals, mint, onion -- to figure out whether they had any food preferences.
And then there were his famous paper-triangle experiments. He set hundreds of paper triangles out on his lawn, at the opening of worm burrows, and then observed how the worms pulled the triangles into their burrows. He was trying to determine whether earthworms had intelligence. He thought that if they could take an unfamiliar object and figure out the most efficient way to pull it into a burrow, that would show some thought process on their part. In fact, they were able, most of the time, to pull paper triangles into their burrow without even crumpling the paper.
Q What are the most important things you've taken away from what Darwin observed?
A Darwin realized that earthworms had incredible power through their collective strength -- that most of the surface of the Earth had been digested, many times over, by earthworms, and that we would all eventually be buried by earthworms. The idea that we are not so weak if we join together is such a lovely, democratic idea.
Q Describe your worm-bin setup.
A I have several worm bins now. At first I justified it by saying I needed them as research for my book, but the fact is I just like having them around. My favorite bin is a round stacking bin called a Can-O-Worms. It sits up on legs, and there are three stacking trays with holes in the bottom of each tray so the worms can move up and down through the different levels. It's kind of like a worm condo.
There are square and rectangular versions with names like Wriggly Wranch and Worm Factory. They all work exactly the same way: The worms stay in the bottom tray until they have eaten all the food, then they move up a level, leaving their rich black castings behind. Then it's very easy to pull the bottom tray off, use the castings in the garden, and set it on top as the new top layer.
Q Do your worms have favorites among your kitchen scraps?
A Oh yes. They love tropical summer fruits like mango. Melons and bananas are particular favorites, too. Keep in mind that these red wigglers are really eating the beneficial bacteria and other microbes that are eating the food. So I think they like sweet fruit because it attracts so much bacteria.
One time I said at a worm composting workshop that my worms love mango skins, so much that they absolutely swarm over them, and a woman who had attended the workshop told me later how much the worms were enjoying the mangoes she was feeding them. It was February, not a time of year when most of us think about tropical fruit, so I said, ``You're not buying mangoes just for the worms, are you?'' She looked a little sheepish and finally confessed that yes, just once, she had bought a mango and fed the whole thing to the worms. Now, that's love.
Q Talk to me about this petting-the-worms thing.
A I've started collecting odd old books about worms. One British text talked about mesmerizing worms, and even said that it is a well-known fact that you can mesmerize lobsters, fish, crabs and snakes by stroking them. Of course, I had to try it, and it is true that stroking a night crawler seems to calm it. Perhaps the sensation of being petted is not too different from the sensation of dirt sliding against its skin.
Q You encourage readers to get to know their worms. How do you do that?
A Well, when you get a worm bin, the booklet that comes with it will probably tell you to leave your worms alone at first and let them get settled in. And it's true that in general, worms don't like to be disturbed. But I can never resist checking on the worms when I have a new bin. I find myself going out there with a little piece of fruit and holding it over the bin, as if they are trained goldfish who will leap up and take the food from my hand. It's silly, I know, but they're fun to watch, even if they don't leap after food or, for that matter, do any tricks at all except make garbage disappear.
Q How much rich stuff do your little guys produce?
A I get a tray of worm castings from my bin about four times a year. Each tray holds maybe a cubic foot of castings. I try to time the days I harvest the castings to coincide with major planting seasons -- spring annuals, for instance, or fall vegetables that I plant in summer, or that annual frenzy in October to get perennials in the ground before it starts raining. I add a small shovelful of castings -- just a scoop, really -- to the bottom of each planting hole.
Now, keep in mind that the red wigglers I use for composting -- the species is Eisenia fetida, and I highly recommend getting this species because it is so well suited for the job -- will not survive in ordinary garden soil. It only lives in decaying organic matter. That's why you want to separate the worms from the castings before adding the castings to the garden. Believe me, once you start keeping worms, you'll grow very concerned about their fate and you'll go to extraordinary lengths to keep even one worm alive.
Q I take it that your husband is not as enamored with worms as you are. Are you all co-existing OK?
A Actually, he used to be quite squeamish about the worms, but lately he's gotten much better. When I'm on the book tour, I always travel with a little plastic container of worms, and believe it or not, people are quite eager to hold a worm. So sometimes I'll be signing books and I'll look up and Scott will have a worm in his hand, pointing out its anatomical features and letting the worm slither onto their palm. He's come a long way. I never thought worms were gross -- they're quite clean and well-behaved -- and I think I've finally convinced him of that, too