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.