Well, you brought it up...
Ted: 1st, I don't eat the bait, I use it to catch fish! 2nd, yes, I've seen it done right in front of my eyes. But we didn't use the sawing method. My cousin, now deceased, needed worms for fishing, & didn't want to dig any up. So he drove a long, metal rod into the ground with a heavy hammer; it may have even been a maul, it was quite a few years back. Then he beat on the side of the rod with the hammer/maul really hard until the worms came to the surface. The theory is that the vibrations on the ground fool the worms into believing it's raining & up they come! :ohmy: :thumbup1:
You can also use one of those old "crank" telephones and run an electrical charge through two rods driven into the ground about 5 feet apart. The current brings them up fast! :thumbup1: (The movie: "Godzilla" shows this being done with a car battery.)