There's plenty of room between the band and the pool for a worm to crawl through.

Precisely correct Bama. My above ground intex will have worms on the bottom after rain. I have an elasticized cover. But it's not rocket science how they get there. They crawl up the side of the pool, under the band, and over the top. Then, glub glub glub glub all the way to the bottom!!

OK, so a worm can crawl up something that is shaped like the bottom of a hershey kiss because it's not exactly a vertical wall.

Anyone get worms in their metal frame pools with vertical walls then?

I'd love to see said worms doing a vertical climb. That would be a good photo. No worms yet for us, even when we had hershey kiss pools.

Hello frog!! The bottom of the "hershey kiss" pool is actually dished out a little on the bottom, so the worm starts his (or her to be politically correct - then again, they're hermaphrodites so either applies to both!!) journey in a wee bit of an upside down position. And when heshe reaches the top then heshe may have to lean back a little again to get over the rail. So the results of that scientific study prove that worms can and indeed WILL ascend a vertical side pool!!

LOL... dum old worms anyway!

I'm so imagining tiny little worm sucker feet... Time to get the microscope out :~}

Actually I think I'll just go fishing today with some worms.

Here ya go frog...you can see hishers little feetsies here!! (providing I can attach a picture!)