Farmers in Nghe An stay up all night 'hunting' for mudworms in the rice fields.
Huy Thu•November 16, 2024 10:47
After many sleepless nights guarding the rice paddies for mudworms, people in the downstream communes of the Lam River have finally caught their first "gifts from nature" of the season. This year, the mudworms surfaced late and are still scarce, so traders are competing to buy them.
These days, farmers in Chau Nhan and Hung Loi communes (Hung Nguyen district) are staying up all night to guard the fields against the rising tide of mudworms. In mid-October of the lunar calendar, the tide rises and recedes in the fields at midnight, making it difficult to catch them.hunting for wormsIt was quite hard work. On the night of November 15th, from 1-2 am, people carried their nets and traps to the fields and sat on the banks waiting for the tide to recede. Photo: Huy ThuLocals say that this year the mudworms appeared late in the rice fields, so the people of the "mudworm village" have had many sleepless nights waiting for them. Around this time in previous years, the mudworms would have already appeared, turning the fields red, but this year, only some low-lying fields have mudworms so far. Photo: Huy ThuNights in the rice paddies are more enjoyable than at home, with the fields sparkling with flashlights and rechargeable lamps. In the rice paddies along the banks of the Lam River, the rice plants emerge earlier than elsewhere, and the villagers are busily setting traps and scooping up the worms. Photo: Huy ThuPeople stayed up all night watching for the mudworms, and when they heard "the mudworms have surfaced," they felt happy. However, because the mudworms didn't surface evenly—some ponds had them, some didn't—many people waited for hours but only managed to collect a small amount. Photo: Huy ThuIn rice paddies teeming with lugworms, the villagers are quite busy hunting for them. Every 10-15 minutes, people pour in a batch of lugworms to collect them. Photo: Huy ThuHowever, there are also rice fields where very few earthworms appear. A resident of Hamlet 2 (formerly) in Chau Nhan commune, waiting for earthworms in a corner of his field, shared that he brought his net and plastic bucket to the field quite early, but after waiting for a long time, lying down and then sitting up, his field still hadn't had any earthworms appear. He only carried his net back home near dawn. Photo: Huy ThuThis season, the riverbanks where the mudworms are bred have been raised by the locals, and the sluice gates for collecting the worms have been reinforced with sturdy sluices and wooden bridges... making it quite convenient for setting up traps to catch the worms. Photo: Huy Thu Many households have already harvested their first batches of the season's mudworms, each batch yielding 2-4 kg. Mr. Cao Van Tuan, from Phu Xuan hamlet, Chau Nhan commune, excitedly shared that his family's mudworm field along the river, covering 2 sao (approximately 0.2 hectares), yielded over 10 kg of mudworms last night. (Photo: Huy Thu) Mr. Vo Van Que, whose household has the most abundant mudworm fields in Phu Xuan hamlet, Chau Nhan commune, said that his family has about 1 acre of mudworm fields (5 plots) and earns hundreds of kilograms of mudworms each season. However, on the night of November 15th, only 2 plots had mudworms, yielding just over 20 kilograms. According to Mr. Que, the mudworm season will last until the end of November in the lunar calendar. The locals are hoping for more mudworm outbreaks in the future. Photo: Huy ThuEarly-season ragworms are still rare; as soon as people bring them to the edge of the rice fields, customers come to buy them. Some households have such abundant ragworms that traders come directly to their homes to compete for them. The price of ragworms at the farm is currently being sold by people in Chau Nhan commune at 350,000 VND/kg. (Photo: Huy Thu)People in Chau Nhan commune (Hung Nguyen district) hunt for lugworms at night. Photo: Huy Thu
