What about biological systems? If you had critters that ate spice, and then other critters that ate those, and concentrated the spice. Repeat as necessary, you could eventually end up with critters that pooped processed spice, kinda like civets.
Maybe the first level spice finders are plants, so not to arouse the worm's attention, and then the second-level processors are like hummingbirds, that don't alight on the sand. Then the third level critters eat the eggs and young of the birds, which only do that stuff on rock, by which time you're safe.
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Maybe the first level spice finders are plants, so not to arouse the worm's attention, and then the second-level processors are like hummingbirds, that don't alight on the sand. Then the third level critters eat the eggs and young of the birds, which only do that stuff on rock, by which time you're safe.