Earthworm living in window frame!

eigg head · #1 (**permalink**) 24-11-2008, 11:18 AM

Yesterday I took a look at a few of our window frames, since I knew one or two needed a touch of undercoat before winter. I was annoyed to find a couple of rotten spots which are going to need work (and money!), but one of them - only five or six centimetres long, a centimetre or so deep, and about a metre up on a patio door - was home to an earthworm approx four centimetres long! How could it have got there? What sustained it? Would it have been largely responsible for the rot?
Any thoughts or observations welcome

Kayleigh · #2 (**permalink**) 24-11-2008, 03:28 PM

Don't know about window frames but they crawl on top of my greenhouse roof and fall on my head when I'm in there.. I don't know why they go on the greenhouse roof..

I hate the bloody things..

Meta menardi · #3 (**permalink**) 24-11-2008, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

Don't know about window frames but they crawl on top of my greenhouse roof and fall on my head when I'm in there.. I don't know why they go on the greenhouse roof..

I hate the bloody things..

Sunbathing? The view? to take off when hang-gliding?

There's 3 good suggestions.

Kayleigh · #4 (**permalink**) 24-11-2008, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meta menardi

Sunbathing? The view? to take off when hang-gliding?

There's 3 good suggestions.

lol

Hedge Witch · #5 (**permalink**) 24-11-2008, 04:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eigg head

Yesterday I took a look at a few of our window frames, since I knew one or two needed a touch of undercoat before winter. I was annoyed to find a couple of rotten spots which are going to need work (and money!), but one of them - only five or six centimetres long, a centimetre or so deep, and about a metre up on a patio door - was home to an earthworm approx four centimetres long! How could it have got there? What sustained it? Would it have been largely responsible for the rot?
Any thoughts or observations welcome

I can answer the last question. To my almost certain knowledge, they cannot have caused this damage. They only eat what is already decayed. I believe it might have ingested some of the rotten wood if it was extremely rotten. But most likely it was sheltering and trying to prevent its desiccation.

Dogghound · #6 (**permalink**) 24-11-2008, 06:12 PM

As Hedge Witch says the worm will have been feeding on ecaying organic matter, through it burrowing further into the wood it would then expose it to further damage as water soaks into it. So the basic answers to your questions are It will have got there by crawling up the wall whilst it was raining and wet. It will have been sustained by the rotting wood and resulting organic matter exposed by this, it will have indirectly caused further damge by creating more areas of water exposure and areas water will hold.

eigg head · #7 (**permalink**) 24-11-2008, 07:21 PM

Thanks for the replies.
I didn't know that earthworms could climb walls, but this one must then have shimmied along a narrow, sloping, gloss painted patio window frame before nestling down in the rotten bit! Quite versatile, with a bit of a head for heights too!

thunder · #8 (**permalink**) 27-11-2008, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

Don't know about window frames but they crawl on top of my greenhouse roof and fall on my head when I'm in there.. I don't know why they go on the greenhouse roof..

I hate the bloody things..

You once chopped one in half, and the Earthworm Mafia are coming to take their revenge!

henrya