Just what's the deal with these nasty little annelids anyway? Every now and then when it has been raining and the humidity is high, certain sections of the bike path will be covered with these little slimy worms. They get thrown up onto your bike and your body as you ride and if you don't remove them before they dry out, they stick like glue to your bike. This morning it was warm, humid and foggy on the bike path. Perfect conditions for road worms. I even had one get thrown up onto my face. Yeech!
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OK, so I eventually went searching on Google for an answer, rather than doing any actual research on the subject, and came up with two opposing theories. The first is that the worms are trying to avoid drowning when their burrows fill up with water. Plausible enough if it weren't for the fact that worms don't have lungs and are quite capable of surviving underwater. The second, and perhaps more likely, theory seems to be that (a) it's the only time they can get onto the pavement since they need sufficient moisture in order to move around, and (b) they are out looking for other worms with whom to copulate, which is difficult to do in a worm burrow (or the back seat of a 57 Chevy). Group worm sex. Right there on our bike path!
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