The launch of the Earthworm Society of Britain, sponsored by OPAL (Open air Laboratories) took place in Hyde Park, London in October 2009.
At the launch a worm charming competition was held to ‘scientifically’ test the methods used and encouraged members of the public to come along and try their hand at worm charming. This gathered some useful data whilst giving the public a lot of laughs, a bit of exercise, and the chance to learn a bit more about our wriggly friends. 
The aims for the newly established society however are a little more serious. Earthworms are a vitally important ecological group and yet one that we really know very little about. We have about 27 species in the UK (a number of species introduced several years ago may or may not remain resident in our soils). The Society wants to educate people on the importance of earthworms, through their informative website, members tours around sites such as the Natural History Museum collections and local worm farms and organising guest speakers up and down the country. They will also be running a national survey of earthworms to build on the enthusiasm generated by the OPAL soil and earthworm Survey. Members can receive specialist identification training to carry out full earthworm surveys or opt to use the OPAL key to survey the common earthworms around them, with no training required.
All the data will be fed into the Society website and will then be uploaded to the NBN Gateway. This means the data will be accessible to all and the Society hopes that scientists up and down the country, as well as interested amateurs, will start helping to gather some real, and very much needed scientific data on British earthworms. Ultimately, the hope is that the Society will raise the profile of British earthworms, provide a forum for discussion and carry out projects up and down the country generating real scientific data.
To find out more about the Earthworm Society of Britain, please visit the website
Written by Emma Sherlock – President of the Earthworm Society of Britain