Actually, there were earthworms in the Americas before the Europeans came, including an aquatic species, which is what the American woodcock eats, but there were no terrestrial earthworms in cold northern forests. As a consequence, fallen leaves didn't decompose as fast in those forests, and many plants adapted to grow in the layers of undecomposed, fallen leaves. (Thanks to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for those facts.)
As for bees, although it's true that there were no Apis honeybees in the Americas before 1622, there are some native, non-Apis bees that indigenous peoples kept for honey and wax, according to Dr. Suzanne Batra of the Bee Research Laboratory of the Agricultural Research Service in Beltville, Maryland. (Her article on pollen bees, which mentions this fact, is here.)
About those earthworms. If you ask the Internet why they come out in the rain, you may find some pages telling you it's because they'd drown in the waterlogged soil otherwise, but other pages are quick to contradict this, saying that earthworms can live underwater for several weeks, provided there's oxygen in the water. These other pages suggest that earthworms come to the surface when it's rainy because it's only then that they can travel overland without drying out and dying . . . though that doesn't explain why they should bother, seeing as they can travel underland at all times. Some pages say it's because they prefer to mate on the surface as opposed to underground, but I am skeptical. The worms you see on lawns and roads and driveways don't ever seem to be copulating. Maybe they just adore the rain.
If, in your childhood, you lived someplace where earthworms come out when it rains, what did you do when you saw them in their numbers, lying sprawled on roads and sidewalks?
(A) Pick your way carefully among them so as not to step on them.
--If this is your answer, was it more the eeeww factor of not wanting to get squashed worm on your shoes, or was it tenderheartedness and not wanting to kill them?
(B) Try to rescue them--try to transport them off the street.
(C) Try to scare other kids by picking the worms up and waving them around and threatening to fling them at the other kids
(D) Something else
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