Scientists say the leaping worm has been in North America because the nineteenth century however has solely not too long ago been flagged as an issue.
Just whenever you assume you’ve turn out to be accustomed to the noticed lanternfly invasion, alongside comes one other menace to the ecosystem: the Asian leaping worm.
Allow me to introduce you to Amynthas agrestis, often known as “Alabama jumper,” “Jersey wriggler” and the rude-but-accurate “crazy worm.” Unlike garden-variety earthworms, these flipping, thrashing, invasive miscreants are ravenous customers of humus, the wealthy, natural, important high layer of soil fashioned by useless and decaying small animals, bugs and leaf litter in locations like forests, plant nurseries and your garden.
Plants, fungi and different soil life can not survive with out humus, and “Asian jumping worms can eat all of it,” Sarah Farmer of the U.S. Forest Service wrote in a USDA Southern Research Center blog post published in May.
A decline in humus would additionally threaten birds and different wildlife that depend upon soil-dwelling bugs for meals.
The insatiable invertebrates, native to east-central Asia, are believed to have been launched to the United States within the late 1800s, doubtless as hitchhikers in potted crops. But their existence went largely unnoticed — or maybe underreported — till the previous decade, when ecologists flagged them as problematic, in accordance to Dr. Timothy McCay, a biology and environmental research professor at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York.
Since then, the worms’ presence has been confirmed in 35 states throughout the nation.
Although their annual life cycle ends in winter, Asian leaping worm cocoons survive to spawn a brand new era in spring. Their tiny eggs are almost not possible to discover in soil or mulch, however grownup worms, which vary from 3 to 8 inches lengthy, are straightforward to spot shut to the soil floor and might typically be seen shifting beneath mulch or leaf litter, McCay stated.
As they devour their approach by way of the soil, the worms depart two issues behind: cocoons and castings. The cocoons are tiny and soil-colored, so they’re straightforward to miss. However, the castings, or excrement, have a granular, coffee-ground texture that may provide you with a warning to their presence.
The shiny worms will be both grey or brown, with a clean cream or white collar that wraps completely round a part of their our bodies. When touched, they thrash from aspect to aspect, soar, and should even slither forwards and backwards like a snake. That habits, coupled with their means to reproduce quickly with no mate, provides them a bonus over predators, McCay stated.
“Robins and different birds, shrews, garter snakes, and amphibians like toads is probably not in a position to successfully suppress their populations,” he stated.
McCay, whose analysis focuses on understanding how the worms invade intact forests, and their impact on forest biodiversity, cautions that “gardeners should do what they can to avoid spreading jumping worms to new areas.” Because the worms sometimes transfer into forests from close by gardens, he stated, management in dwelling and group gardens is critical to sluggish their invasion into pure habitats.
So throughout this season of plant dividing and swapping, gardeners have to be vigilant. Keep an eye fixed out for the worms’ castings, a tell-tale signal of their presence. Inspect the soil clinging to plant roots and within the floor surrounding them. In addition, McCay advises, don’t get rid of waste from contaminated gardens into close by forests, and share solely crops which were repotted after their roots have been cleaned of clinging soil.
Unfortunately, there are not any good management measures obtainable for established populations of leaping worms. But McCay stated choosing them out by hand and dropping them into containers of vinegar will cut back their numbers. He is aware of of 1 gardener in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, who eliminated 51,000 worms that approach in 2021.
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