Asian Jumping Worms - Another Forest Foe

[@marypeterson3512]

Will the tea tree meal hurt good worms too? I would think so…

[@karunald]

But Mustard/water trick brings them to the surface also. I thought the Tea meal/Saponins did more

[@pamelaharnoisart]

I have these! Oh no. Should I pick up the castings? Is it ok to keep adding leaf mulch to my garden?

[@dw6229]

If u cover the matter with clear plastic will it also kill “the good worms”?

[@cuznclive2236]

Yes, but these worms are surface dwellers for the most. Other species will, generally, burrow deeper to avoid being cooked. Solarization works well with chop and drop scenarios wherein the crop drops, the worms gather, and the heat (solarization) cooks them and their casings... along with most everything not adapted to scorching temps.

[@jeil5676]

I've heard conflicting stories about native worms in NA. Supposedly many are native and you can find them way up north. I have doubts they could spread that far so quickly. I've heard there are also old indian words for worms that pre-date columbus. There are youtube vids about it.

[@anitaplouffe58]

Does covering the soil with plastic kill the good worms also?

[@sanfordsmith1746]

Only is the sun heats up the soil enough through the plastic as described in the video.

[@warrenschwartz5653]

Tea seed meal can be purchased from Planet Turf.

[@karolynann4106]

I live in Oklahoma and didn't realize the one I had on my driveway was an Asian jumping worm. I managed to get it in a cup and throw it in my bushes, thought I was saving an earthworm from the heat. The worm was huge with a band around it, it jumped, thrashed and moved like a snake, scared me since I never encountered a worm like it. I had to make sure it really wasn't a snake. Now I'll be on the lookout for more of them.

[@autumnmarchand6661]

They’re here in the Central Valley California too

[@victoriao1828]

Found them in Arkansas too 😢

[@vee_grave]

Who are the natural predators for these jumping worms in Asia? I mean there are forests and vegetation in Asia.

[@ambern.9887]

They destroy the natural habitat,Each area has its own plants Animals etc that grow in a certain soil with particular plants and insects etc that feed that soil and particular plants which house and feed animals that require the latter. We can't be Asia everywhere. We can't wish it away. These destroy lawns and flowers we plant .

[@georgesmith5201]

You'd think our birds would eat these menaces just like any other type of earthworm.

[@Gesundheit888]

birds actually eat very few worms. They are not picky, they just need a variety and worms are a small percentage on their plate. @@georgesmith5201

[@gardengatesopen]

Their natural enemies - I thought about that too. Some of the research I've read also mentions this, however, they had not been able to figure out just exactly WHAT it is that keeps the j.worm in check in their natural habitat. Which is unfortunate for us. Or... Is it??? I'm just thinking we may NOT WANT whatever that thing is over here! And bringing it over, introducing anything else, could ALSO be invasive to a point of destruction! Which by definition IS an invasive I guess... Anyway, historically, introducing more things that aren't native has not really EVER panned out for the humans, and their countries, who have tried that approach! And actually, their results have been disasterous! So for me, I'm now leaning away from that approach...

[@gardengatesopen]

@georgesmith5201 The birds DO eat them. All the regular worm eating animals eat them too! It's just that the j.worms breed really fast, and extremely often. They don't even need a partner to create a viable worm egg. Yep, they have the ability to have babies all by themselves! And as soon as the worm becomes an adult, that's all it does! It's just constantly making MORE EGGS!!! The one I unintentionally exploded (in the heat and a tiny amount of water) had FOUR eggs inside of it! FOUR!!! And this was just an average size worm! Each egg was just waiting their slimy turn to be deposited in the soil. The researchers say an adult j.worm simply crawls around eating the leaves, and dropping several eggs a week. So really, that's all it does is make babies. Oh, and I'm not trying to be an alarmist- But... There was an "incident" concerning a large group of birds (somewhere, I don't know exactly where) that were POSSIBLY dying from eating these very worms. What happened was there was this epidemic type scenario of just A LOT of birds suddenly dying. So many birds died in this one area that, "they" decided to try to figure out WHY ARE ALL THE BIRDS DYING??? Well... They never could figure out the exact reason. But they did figure out that these dead birds had indeed been eating asian jumping worms. However, it was impossible to tell by an autopsy how many, and how often, and for what length of time, had the birds been eating them. They did speculate that it was quite possible that eating the j.worms could have a negative cumulative affect. So... Who knows? Maybe the birds DID pig-out on jumping worms? And maybe they did that every day for months? And maybe those nasty worms DID have a negative effect? Or, maybe not. We just won't know until somebody does that experiment... So anyway, the worm eggs are encased in a silk cocoon which is impervious to stomach acid. Which means eating the adults does NOT rid us of the problem. Especially since the eggs are on a time-release schedule to hatch. Not every egg laid this year will hatch this year. A certain percentage will hatch next year. Another percentage will hatch the next, next year. Another percentage will hatch on the third year. And probably it goes even further into the future, except!! We dont' know - YET!!! Because the research for THAT fact finding mission was only 3 years old at the time of publishing THAT information. Personally, I find the whole time-released schedule process Diabolical. And depressing.

[@richardjenkins8366]

Just found these in my community garden 😢

[@adamgeorge37]

i had an idea, for the forested areas that they are invading would prescribed burns stop them?

[@sanfordsmith1746]

Good thinking! It helps reduce them for a while but then as vegitation grows back in, the ticks reestablish themselves again.

[@adamgeorge37]

@@sanfordsmith1746 did you mean jumping worms not ticks?

[@sanfordsmith1746]

@@adamgeorge37 Yes, my bad Adam. I had thinking about ticks when I wrote that reply. I do think controled burning an area would set Asian Jumping Worms back somewhat, but if there was moist organic matter in the soil they would probably hang in there a while until some other vegetation was available.

[@adamgeorge37]

@@sanfordsmith1746 All good. I just wasn't sure if that would change your answer or not. thats good information. thanks

[@kanika9995]

What is the chemical called thanks ?

[@ryshi1299]

Are there a invasive species

[@ambern.9887]

It says they are yes ..

[@KeithFleming-qs2kh]

Y'all must not have armadillos in the north cause hear in south Alabama they keep em in check

[@blenderbenderguy]

It seems to my uneducated mind that since these worms breakdown compostable material faster that they'd be beneficial in the gardener's composting process, and there should be some value in their castings 🤔........ not so?

[@2lotsill]

Thought the same thing. They explained why that isn’t the case in the video

[@TDAEON]

They are not beneficial. They leave behind casings that are hard and don't help condition the soil. So that won't improve your garden. Plus you'll likely have eggs in the casings and spread them into your yard n beyond. And in the wild, they dont live deep in soil but instead more in the surface, eating the leaf mulch and debris matter at a high rate; leaving nothing for the beneficial bugs, fungi, etc. The the biome of that area gets unbalanced and in some cases, destroyed. They are also able to reproduce by themselves so they tend to out reproduce the good worms in addition to outcompeting them for the available food. These worms are no bueno.

[@joniboulware1436]

The castings destroy soil. The casting clump together and bind the beneficial material. Plant roots don't take hold and the nutrients are not available.

[@Gesundheit888]

Collect them into a plastic container and put into your freezer. Within minutes they are dead. The next day throw them into your compost.

[@joniboulware1436]

No don't throw them in the compost. Their bodies can have cocoons. Cocoons are not destroyed by freezing.

[@ruby319able]

Just repeat what I say and look confident

[@yulai3818]

So, all the forests in China must have being destroyed by now due to all the jumping worms native there. :(

[@christinasornbutnark1208]

And now my Southern California garden 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

[@gardengatesopen]

Central Texas, and I've got them too!! 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

[@mariap.894]

@Christina & @gardengate I feel your pain, I have them here in SoFlo also! I thought they were the "local species " so stupidly I tried to encourage their reproduction. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️☠️☠️☠️ The only "good thing" is that I've noticed that the local Geckos seem to hunt and eat them😮

[@gardengatesopen]

It is good the lizards are eating them! Maybe? And did you hear you can test the soil to see if you have them by mixing ⅓ cup of dry, powdered, mustard seed with 1 gallon of water, then pour about half at a time in a small area, wait for it to soak in, then pour the other half in. Every kind of worm (and other bugs too! Like earwigs!) will come up to the surface. You can scoop them up and then look at them carefully to make sure there aren't any earthworms. Of coarse, we just did it once & found between 20-30 young jumping worms in ONE square foot of soil ! Which is terrible. They either drive out, or kill the earth worms. My good worms are all gone in that area. Now I'm going to use this method to check EVERYWHERE!! Except... My biggest concern now (since I can easily remove the hatched worms) is the probably thousands of eggs in those dang cocoons which will be hatching EVERY YEAR into the future! (Bcuz they're time-released to do that) And the silk the cocoons are made of is impenetrable. So there's no way to chemically kill them. Which I'm kinda thankful for since my entire yard is organic, and I wouldn't want to poison everything! But - I read high heat for 3 days kills the cocoons, but I can't dig up my entire yard that's in the shade! Anyway - I hate to be the bearer of bad news... I was thinking about the adults getting eaten too... It's just that I read the j.worms have a few cocoons lined up in their body, ready to come out (like - ALL THE TIME) since they're laying 2 or more cocoons a week as they travel on their destructive way. And I don't know if this is true, but I was just thinking that it has such a strong survival of the species thing going on, that if the adult gets eaten, I'm betting those dang egg cocoons would just sail thru the gut of the animal who ate it, and then be expelled in the animal's waste, intact, ready to hatch. I'm just guessing on that. But I DID have one big adult worm which I had in a small bucket with a tad of water. I decided to do an experiment. I put the lid on it, and then - oops... I left it in the sun 🤭 Well, the result was the worm did die. However, the interesting part was what happened to its body. Because there was a tiny bit of water in there, it didn't dry up, instead, it kinda burst. And the PLACE where it burst is the interesting part - it was in the area just below the sex organ, and what was laying there were these FOUR little black ball shaped things, which I am guessing we're egg cocoons. The worm had freed her progeny before dying! Which just means if the adult worm drowns, or whatever, it's last "survival of the species" act is to release any eggs that were already on their way at the time before death. Again, I'm just guessing. I'm not a scientist. I can't prove anything. And I don't have a microscope to look at the eggs to make sure they are eggs. I just think they are an insidious pest. And I'm now setting up a place to "solarize" all my leaves, and as much soil as possible in the places I find them. I guess I'll be doing this for the next 5 or more years!! Ugh. They're just awful. I'm really surprised they are in the super sandy Florida soil too! I was thinking they may not like all that sand... Do they go deeper than the top 2-4 inches of your soil just to stay cool? Gosh. I'll say it again - They're just awful !

[@karolynann4106]

@@gardengatesopen Oklahoma also. :( Found one on my driveway...

[@gardengatesopen]

@karolynann4106 ugh. How awful. I'm trying to solarize everything. And now, I actually don't think there is going to be enough hot Summer days to solarize every area that needs doing. I never thought I would EVER want MORE super hot days like we've been having!! Also, I'm already tired of digging up dirt to solarize it... it's only been a month 😮‍💨 But whenever I need motivation, I just think of those eggs DYING in the hot sun!! Are you going to be doing anything about the ones in your yard? I often wonder what others are doing about "the invasion"...