ELECTRIC SIGNALS AS A TOOL FOR SEPARATION OF EARTHWORMS (Eisenia fœtida) FROM HUMUS

Improving the efficiency of the earthworms separation process from its substrate (humus) is important because this is the most labor and time intensive stage. In this study the same techniques used in electrical fishing was employed with some adaptations for earthworm separation. Therefore, the effect of an electric field produced by controlled electric signals was studied for displacement of the earthworm Eisenia fœtida. The study was conducted at the Energy in Agriculture Laboratory of the Department of Agricultural Engineering, Federal University of Viçosa, MG. The earthworms preferentially moved towards one of the electrodes, as observed in more than 90% of the cases. Therefore, based on these results, it could be concluded that utilization of controlled electrical signals is technically suitable for separation of earthworms from humus.