3 foot earthworms? Thats an idea in my head that can go to hell. how big are they around? Are they like snake size?
Now that you could reasonably justify killing out of fear with a shovel, if you happened to find it in your garden.
God knows I would. Bugs are one of my biggest phobias; whenever I go to bed and I see a bug in my room, even if it's a small one, I will not go to sleep until the damn thing is dead.
When I got to the part where it mentions them planning to shock the worms out of the ground..that immediately reminded me of this movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squirm_(film) "When Mick is bitten by a very large worm in the bait bucket, Roger relates a tale (for the purposes of foreshadowing) of how, when his father started the worm farm, he electrified the ground to bring worms up. The roused worms bit and permanently injured Roger." Has bad news written all over it.