Large worms in water trough

[MrsNorris]

Recently moved to a new DIY yard and noticed that the automatic trough was dirty, cleaned it out and thought no more of it, checked it today and it had about 30 - 40 worms in it.
Not insect larvae, they look like earthworms, all sizes from less than an inch to over 4 inches, some dark, some pale, most dead but some still wriggling. Can't think how they got in there, there's no mud or grass been dropped in by the horses, water is still lovely and clean, but full of worms, its gross..
Anyone had experience of this?

 

[Darkwater]

I find worms in my water buckets fairly often, we've been assuming that birds perhaps drop them in but I don't really know!

 

[nicelittle]

Yes, it happens to us sometimes, mostly after rain. I fished them all out with a net.

 

[MrsNorris]

As many as that though in 2 days? You always find the odd one or 2 granted, but this was literally several handfuls of the things........We did have very heavy rain that night though, maybe there's a connection

 

[NZJenny]

One of life's great mysteries. How do the worms get in the water trough? Right up there with the mystery of the missing socks.

 

[Penny Less]

We get a sort of water beetle in ours !

 

[MrsNorris]

One of life's great mysteries. How do the worms get in the water trough? Right up there with the mystery of the missing socks.

Lol, yeah... just checked it again and its now got about 100 - 200 tiny little worms in it, and no big ones, and that's since I cleaned it out last night, its weird!

 

[poiuytrewq]

Op- so weird! Recently my horse broke the trough in the field so I put two big trugs of water by the gate. The following morning, full of earth worms- literally say a feed scoop full! I emptied, refilled but was the same thing next day!
The trough is fixed now so I no longer have the trugs in use but it happened daily for a good two weeks!?!

 

[MrsNorris]

It must be raining worms, can't think how else the little blighters are getting in there!
Oh well, just have to invest in a little fishing net I suppose, and ponder on the mysteries of life!