Why Asian Jumping Worms are Bad?

I saw a post continuously shared on Facebook saying that if you find Asian jumping worms in your garden, you should kill them right away. Even experts in the USA are saying this. It seems like people there are very worried about these worms.

But in Sri Lanka, where I live, these worms are very common. You can find hundreds of them if you dig in healthy parts of the soil or a garden bed. Based on my experience, I know that They break down organic matter faster than other worms. If there are a lot of them, they can even break down a big pile of grass clippings just in a few days. But usually, they don’t work that fast. They move fast and long distances. They spend a few hours a day in the compost pile and go down to deep soil layers when the temperature is hot.

If anyone outside Asia has experience with these worms, please share your experience! I want to know if they are that bad or I’m missing something.

I get that you're asking for people with personal experience, and I'm not that. Warnings about these worms are all the rage on the naturalist groups in my area. Here's what my state says about their threat:

Jumping worm impacts:
- Jumping worms can dramatically change soils, giving it a unique texture similar to coffee grounds. Jumping worms feast on mulch and strip vital nutrients from topsoil. This kills plants and increases erosion. Homeowners may see garden plants killed and may have difficulty growing plants.
- Jumping worms can cause environmental harm where they are established. Studies have found nonnative earthworms dramatically change forest soils by eating the leaf litter layer and impacting soil chemistry, soil organisms and plant communities. Jumping worms have been shown to have similar effects. When the soil changes, the forest can’t support the same plant and animal species it did before earthworms.

It sounds to me like they can change the ecology and if the only thing you want is for things to stay the same, they're the enemy. I'm a little dubious about the stripping nutrients from the topsoil...where do those nutrients go? Wouldn't they be returned to the system when the worm dies? I guess maybe if they prey on important soil microbes and drive those to extinction, that could be disruptive. But most of all, it doesn't sound like we can reasonably do anything about it. I don't move soil around and they're going to get here when they get here, so we'll have to learn to live with them.

I also find it difficult to believe that they 'strip nutrients' - maybe they make them more soluble and they leach away?
I'm intrigued by the idea they might convert organic waste to compost more quickly. I wonder if you can host them in a compost area (assuming you already have them in your location) to speed up the composting process. They sound more like free ranging worms though!

I think that the main concern for these worms is that in the Northeastern United States (which is where they have been introduced so far), the temperate hardwood forests have evolved to build soil mostly through the falling of deciduous leaves. The point that I've read from university studies is that the leaf litter on these forest grounds would be completely consumed. I don't know how the total nutrient content of the soil would change much, but they might cycle the organic matter too fast for this ecosystem. Also there is the potential for massive moisture loss and then potential drought or fire if the worms spread far enough.
I'm not to concerned about it, systems change and evolve. The continuos consumption of leaf litter in this region would just allow for a wider range of seeds to germinate. I imagine that these worms among many other factors could contribute to the long term shift from a hardwood forest to a denser soft wood forest with more living mulches. This change has already stated since the European contact happened and fire suppression became common practice.

They are part of the ecosystem in their native range, contributing to the turn over of organic matters. In northeast US forests, earth worms were extinct 10,000 years ago, and the ecosystem evolved without them. Fallen leaves are accumulated on the forest floor and the thick duff layer is critical for the germination of tree seeds and critters living in it. In the early stage of jumping worm introduction, large amount of nutrients stored over a long time are turned into explosive growth of worm population. Some worm-eating small animals may benefit from the abundance of food however, this is a one time deal. when the leaf layer is gone, jumping worm population will go down but they still persist. The forest floor and soil is unable to maintain a high level of dead OM since and that will increase the risk of soil erosion and jeopardize the ecosystem.

If I remember my history classes correctly, the "native" earthworms here in the eastern US, came from Europe mixed in with the ballast stones from the old wind sailing days.  In fact there is a White Stone, Virginia, where it is said the ships would remove some or most of their ballast stones in order to clear the more shallow waters going up the Rappahannock River.  And our current earthworms came from this mix of soil and stone mostly from England.

Don't know if this is true.  If the fear is that these jumping worms might take over, I feel that the plants and trees, that have weathered many changes, will do so once again!

Peace

It seems to me that earthworms in general are a prey species for a lot of other things, birds and other insects; firefly larvae for instance.  I wonder if these will "catch up" with the invasions after a few years.  Observations might elucidate this.  On a small scale if "explosive" numbers are seen, perhaps some poultry added to the system might bring the infestation toward a useful yield.....

Alder Burns wrote:It seems to me that earthworms in general are a prey species for a lot of other things, birds and other insects; firefly larvae for instance.  I wonder if these will "catch up" with the invasions after a few years.

Yep. No species will remain invasive for ever. Sooner or later, they will be integrated in the local ecosystem. Sometimes all that's needed is for some predator species to increase in numbers, or learn to use the new food source that's suddenly appeared. In other cases, there's no immediately obvious reason for a previously heavily invasive species to start declining. For instance, here is a study on the decline of garlic mustard populations in North America.

Of course, the problem is that these processes take time, and any native species driven to extinction in the meantime will remain gone. But in general it feels like the panic over invasive species is somewhat exaggerated.

My concerns is around reports that chickens won't eat them.
If chickens won't, what about other predators?
I suspect those reports are overblown.
It took a while for my chickens to appreciate slugs, but now they eat them with gusto.

As I understand it, they do burrow deep, which allows them to survive our winters.
While the granulated soil is bad for many of our plants, there should be plants from the worms native range that thrive on such soil.

Loads of fear-mongering around this topic here in New England. While we all agree having Asian Jumping worms on your property sucks, it's not going to prevent anyone from growing. If you actually read the scientific studies on Asian Jumping worms, you can see there is still plenty of room for speculation.

A few thoughts to keep in mind that could help some people sleep better:

The Asian Jumping worm was first documented in this country in the 1860s in California. It was first documented on the East Coast in the 1930s, but it easily could have been on the East coast for longer. Its 2024 and the world hasn't ended yet. The Northeast is still one of the greatest forest recovery stories in human history despite the presence of the Asian jumping worm.

Heavy metal accumulations are found for all earth worms, not just Amynthas agrestis. It's in our freshwater fish and pretty much everywhere like micro plastics.

The idea about earthworms not surviving the ice age in North America is hard to accept as fact. Nobody knows how long an earthworm cocoon stays viable. One study found earthworm cocoons hatched after 40 years, but that could be because no one has tested it for longer than that. They recently hatched a round worm cocoon they found in the Siberian permafrost. There was also ice in Europe during the ice age and somehow they have native earthworms that survived.

Like-wise the commonly used story that ship ballasts spread the earthworm across the upper United States seems unlikely to me. I'm not sure how many ship ballasts were filled with fertile agricultural land full of worms. The gravel we grow in had no worms until we did the work to convert it to soil.

More likely IMO, is the idea of them migrating from the South where there are loads of native earthworms.

The chicken is native to Asia, just like the jumping worm. Everyone with chickens has a natural predator on hand for the jumping worm. Don't want heavy metal eggs? Maybe this is a new use for rooster-only flocks.

A UVM study looking at forest floor damage by jumping worms, could not determine why the jumping worm was present in specific areas of a forest, but not others in the same forest. In it's natural habitat in Asia, the Asian Jumping worm is found in fields and grassy areas. I suspect it could be mycelium or fungi preventing Asian jumping worms from spreading and the forests that are being ravaged are new growth forests, but that's just a guess from a humble farmer.

The Asian jumping worm to me makes a great case for permaculture. We can eliminate risk by making our own inputs because every time you bring in soil, compost, manure, or potted plants, you risk bringing in the jumping worm.

Growers dealing with jumping worms have loads of opportunity for SARE grants. I'd love to know how toxic eggs actually are from chickens eating them, or if grow practices enhancing mycorrhizal fungi reduces jumping worm populations. Is forest litter consumption increased or decreased with specific species of trees? One study noticed damage in Maple and Basswood stands, but not other areas in the same vicinity.  What sort of role does diversification of tree species affect jumping worm populations in forests?

Since the jumping worm isn't going anywhere, I would prefer to see questions and answers spread rather than fear.

I have heard about the chickens not liking jumping worms, and I have seen a mixed reaction with my hens.



I'd say that the majority of my flock is on sight with jumping worms. Meaning that they will eat them if they notice them! A few of my hens don't care as much for the wiggly guys but they will dig through areas that show jumping worm traces.

Could Oyster Mushrooms help?  https://youtube.com/shorts/HgGhID6kuS0?si=vGxrbDBHVPpGTAu7

I’ve been planting an anthelmintic landscape for years for the ruminants on the farm.  This has an interesting effect on the worm population limiting it, and other parasites.  Heavy partitions between pastures require replanting occasionally, but I have free pollinating clovers crossing, sainfoin, and lespedeza.  First I had to build a few roads across the farm, I fenced them off.  Altered the mineral soil ecology usually increased calcification (oyster shells) then planted with many species of each as they take several years to establish.  I irrigate over these roadways some, let plants mature, they spread seed (wind drift) into the pastures.  Calcifying next to roads inside the pastures caused them to propagate inside pastures.  Many, many, clover species, subterranean, up to balansa.  The clovers crossed and I have a few new subspecies as well as sainfoin.  As the clover spreads I have fewer flies in the summer as well, I’ve noticed this year.  I don’t have to worm the sheep, cows as we check them for worms/parasites quarterly, and haven’t found any for years.  Chickens free range on these same pastures are also vermifree.  Proactive bio integration maybe the answer to increased parasitic invasion, but I’m not waiting find out. Cheers.

Our animals, domestic or wild work the land better than I could ever hope too.  They are our friends, and family, and we all work together to make the fullest version of nature we can.  

To me it is ALL HYPE.    I love my Asian jumping worms, excellent for my plants, if they eat the fallen leaves that means I get VERMICOMPOST woo hoo which makes the plants grow more!    More food for the birds....      

So,  I have them all in my aquaponic systems and my plants are thriving...  I encourage more of them....

They have been around Florida for years, and I hope they stay they are most welcome here.

I think it depends on your local environment. In some environments they probably help. In others they harm.

In the PNW, they are harmful. And I've watched it happen firsthand. I put down a bunch of compost and mulch and woodchips. It breaks down. I think, I must have amazing soil under that top layer. Nope. Just rock hard clay pellets that compact into a thick crust, and many plants struggle to grow in it.

If I put more mulch down, it feeds the jumping worms and I end up with more and it continues to ruin the soil rather than building it.

They eat up all the compost and mulch before the other beneficial organisms can and harm the balance of the soil ecosystem.

If you kill the worm by starving them or waiting for a big freeze, you still have to deal with the eggs. They don't need to have sex to reproduce, and their eggs last for years and are difficult to destroy, so you'll have to kill the eggs, which requires heating the soil, mulch, etc to about 105°F for several days.

This has required me to reconsider how I use permaculture methods.

So I'm switching to new methods and trying to keep with permaculture principles as mush as possible. I'm using living mulch, solarizing compost and soil before I use it, composting in raised containers off the ground, not sharing plants with neighbors (seeds are ok though), and killing all the jumping worms I find by putting them in strong vinegar (they die in about 2 seconds). We can't get rid of them once we have them, but the less there are, the less damage there will be. To feed the beneficial earthworms that live deep in the soil, I'm planting things with deep root, cutting off the tops just under the surface, and letting them rot in place, so our friendly worms and other soil helpers stick around. The jumping worms tend to stay in the top 4 inches of the soil (they will go deeper though), so any composting has happened much deeper than that and covered with something they don't find appetizing. Fortunately they don't seem to like conifer needles, so I'm going to start using pine and arborvitae needles as mulch over the deep compost to see if that helps slow them down without harming the plants.

Tea seed meal can help but it harms all worms, even the beneficial ones, and can harm predators. We have a garter snake in our yard who likes to eat them and all the slugs (some snakes are excellent slug control), and I don't want to hurt our snake friend, so no tea seed meal for us.

If you spray the soil with soap or vinegar, it will bring them up to the surface and maybe even kill them, but it may also kill your plants and will also harm all the other organisms. I do this in areas where I need to kill aggressive weeds with vinegar.

You can make mustard water and use that to bring them up to catch them, and that won't hurt your plants, but it won't kill them, so you have to grab them, make sure it's not the beneficial worms, and drop them in vinegar, and some of them are fast so it can be a challenge to get them all.

I am hoping the predators will increase in numbers and help keep the population under control. And I'm hoping to figure out how to break down the jumping worm poop into something my plants can use.

Nature keeps changing, and I'm trying to change with it. Watch. Learn. Experiment. Adapt.

The clay compaction thing rings true for me. It's like the worms process the organic matter faster than it builds back up, and clay doesn't forgive that the way loamy soil would. Mart's Florida experience makes sense too, if you've got the soil biology to support it maybe they're fine. Probably a nightmare if you're already fighting drainage.

Kris - I wonder if they are susceptable to 'worm grunting'? - see this thread Might be worth a try, especially if they don't go down very deep.

Nancy, we have been talking about trying that.

Powdered mustard for mustard water gets expensive after awhile, and I hate the thought of causing chemical irritation to other organisms who have done nothing but help us.

Plus, I want to go to the woods near our neighborhood and look for the jumping worms there (I see signs of them in the soil and the absence of deciduous leaf litter this time of year when I'd expect to see a nice mulch layer, so I suspect they're there gobbling everything up and making more clay pebbles), and I don't want to do a mustard water flush in a natural area, so I was thinking of giving that a try.

Got to make a grunting stick. I wonder if apple branches would work for it. I got plenty of those. I'll let you know if it works.

Of all the threats to the Northeastern forest I know of, jumping worms are at the very bottom of the list. There are thriving native ecosystems nearby that have jumping worms—recovering from being a pasture, but definitely recovering year by year. I’ve observed ramps and other tuberous natives being especially happy in any area with worms.

Kris Hughes wrote:I think it depends on your local environment. In some environments they probably help. In others they harm...

Nature keeps changing, and I'm trying to change with it. Watch. Learn. Experiment. Adapt.

I've been seeing worries about Jumping worms for some time, and I'm really hoping they don't make it to my region. Like you, I have very clay soil, and what I've read suggests they will be more of a liability than an asset.

It sounds as if in your region, the genie is already out of the bottle. The thing I would think about, (other than some of the wonderful approaches you've already thought of!), is how you can teach your predators that Jumping worms, and Jumping worm eggs are yummy? This has happened in several places in the world where an introduced species becomes a huge problem, and eventually, something figures out how to make them food.  Once they become food, they will hopefully end up in balance.

This is a *very* good example of why it's critical not to share soil or plants without a good quarantine period.

Jay,

In our neighborhood, most homes use bark mulch and trucked in soil, which are prime carriers of the jumping worms, and the landscaping companies go house to house spreading it, so I'm sure that's a big factor in the worms spreading. And there are a lot of other people who go yard to yard for various reasons (sales people doing free estimates for pest control and windows and such who walk through yards, utilities, etc), so they could be carrying it on their shoes.

I don't use bark mulch or landscapers, but I've shared plants with my fence neighbors and have mostly bought plants, soil, compost, and mulch from reputable nurseries when I didn't have the means to produce those things myself within a reasonable time, and I've seen these energetic worms for many years but didn't know they were invasive until recently. I just thought I wasn't a great gardener because I couldn't get my soil to improve as much as I hoped it would even though I had so many worms and was doing everything the books told me to do. I'm sure however we got them, they've been here for a long time, and it explain why everyone around here trucks in big loads of bark and wood mulch to their small yards nearly every year when it normally wouldn't break down so quickly.

I did notice the garden bed where my friendly garter snake lives still has leaf mulch on it (from our trees, not imported) while the other areas are already bare, so maybe I can persuade more garter snakes and moles to move in.

Kris Hughes wrote:... I did notice the garden bed where my friendly garter snake lives still has leaf mulch on it (from our trees, not imported) while the other areas are already bare, so maybe I can persuade more garter snakes and moles to move in.

Yes!! This is the "observation" that helps guide us to how we can support Mother Nature through permaculture!

I don't know if you've met the PEP program yet - badge bits for demonstrating useful permaculture skills. We have one for creating snake habitat and it may give you some ideas of how to support your garter snake population:
https://permies.com/wiki/108012/pep-animal-care/Snake-Lizard-Habitat-PEP-BB

(Step 1 - juggle your feet fast when you realize you're about to step on one... don't worry, I managed to miss it!)

I don't know as much about moles. They may be a double-edged sword as they can hurt plants from my understanding.

Jay,

Definitely a good resource. I will be using it. Who knew I'd ever want more snakes in my yard. As long as they can't hurt my family, including pets, I'm welcoming them.

I am learning so much about what local predators will eat the worms. I think making predator habitat is going to be the best way to deal with them to avoid killing all the beneficial and native species.

The moles eat the worms, grubs, etc underground. From what I've read, they eat a lot! They don't eat the plants, but sometimes they do accidentally cause root damage. (And rats like to use their tunnels, and I very much try to reduce the rat population because we've had nightmare infestations before.) I used to trap the moles, but I have since stopped that, and I think I'm going to need them to help with soil compaction in addition to the worms, so I'm going to let them be and see what happens. (A lot of people in my area confuse them with voles, which do eat roots, and we have voles here too, so many of the neighbors are not mole-friendly, but I do see them in my yard now and then.)

We also have shrews, and I've seen them in the garden, so I know they're doing their part to help.

Some worm-eating birds do eat the worms. Some don't when the worms flop around too much.

We unfortunately have hammerhead flatworms (invasive) that eat worms, but they are very slow and only seem to go after slow worms. I don't think they'd be able to catch a jumping worm, even to excrete a neurotoxin on them, but I don't encourage anyone to try to welcome in invasive toxic hammerhead flatworms.

Racoons and skunks eat the worms, and I've seen both on my cameras, but I'd prefer to not have them living in my yard. The racoons are cute, but they like to play and destroy everything they can pick-up, and they do eat my food plants before I can harvest them. And skunks, well, smell like skunks. I'd welcome them if I had a bigger plot of land.

We used to have opossums once in awhile, but I haven't seen them in a long time. Maybe if they come back, they could help, but they can also cause damage in other ways, so I'm not building a habitat for them quite yet.

I've heard mixed stories from people who have chickens and ducks who sometimes eat the jumping worms. It could possibly be a problem for them because of heavy metals that the worms accumulate, but I don't know enough about that. I am currently unable to have either feathered friend, so I'm going to focus on the local wildlife.

Here's to making nature-inspired habitats and hoping the wildlife balances it all out soon.