More Pest Found In MA-jumping worms

So if the worms have parachuted in recently you have a fair chance? :wink:

One man’s logic is another’s foolishness. That’s why I’m interested in the source of any given recommendation. I manage to make foolish mistakes without any encouragement.

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The two biggest/best sources of info right now are UW Madison (someone at the Arboretum took notice) and U. of Vermont (because of the maple syrup industry). Most of their advice comes down to prevention (basic biosanitation practices) and monitoring (mustard water soaks). The mustard water drives them to the surface, so you could theoretically control or eliminate a small infestation with repeated applications over several years. Solarization has shown some promise, since these worms don’t burrow deeply, but again that’s only practical on a small area. Other things that have potential are saponins (such as Early Bird fertilizer that used to be used on golf courses) and a fungal pathogen, but both of these treatments will affect all earthworm species. In the Northeast, there are not native earthworms, so it would be a no-brainer for out in the woods. But in the yard, have to weigh that against the benefit European earthworms have for our gardens. And in my case, unless I get several hundred neighbors on board, anything I do will buy me a year or two of no worms, at best.

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It looks like meaningful research on the problem will be a while longer coming. Maybe the advice applies if you recently installed a potted or BB’d plant that was infected and you noticed it almost right away. That’s my logical leap- Weeeeee!

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A few weeks late. Here is a worm that came out of the ground while mowing the leaves in the yard. When turning the compost, I didn’t come across any worms so I assume the cold already did them in.

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I found jumping worms in two locations here in WV. A few years ago the electric utility cut and mulched trees on my rural road. My neighbor had a huge pile of chips dumped in a field. The pile rotted for around 3 years and i asked if i could have the pile… i found about a dozen deep in the nasty bottom of the pile… no clue how they made it from rural trees into a rural field.

A local farm supply store offers ‘free mulch’ as an enticer. Local tree trimming services are happy to dump their chips there. I found many of them in those old chip piles also.

No clue how many i missed… and its likely i introduced them to my plantings.

Salamanders and birds wont eat them.

The problem isnt so much with the worms… as with the cocoons. You cant really see them… and no telling how many are in the mulch, compost or plant materials that you guy in stores or online.

I think moles are their best predator…but that is a whole other bag of worms…lol.

I was thinking about jumping worms the other day. I had some dirt work done at the orchard (excavation and dozing). Afterward, the dozer tracks needed cleaned out because of muck (Caked muck will freeze in the tracks and break things, if the machine is used with packed frozen muck in the tracks.)

I cleaned the tracks because I ran the dozer. I probably dug out 50 lbs. of mud. This is a regular occurrence with dirt work contractors. Imagine how many dozers/excavators run up and down the roads long distances doing dirt work. It’s not practical to wash them (and the low boys which haul them, which also get all kinds of dirt on them from the dirty machines) without adding lot’s of cost, making dirt work even more expensive.

It occurred to me the proliferation of these jumping worms is going to be fairly quick.

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How do you know birds won’t eat them?

Univ of Ill info on birds
Jumping Worms Update: University of Illinois Extension

Dont feed to chickens-

I think they do not survive the cold, but the cocoons do… which can be transfered in every way imaginable… the cocoons do survive the cold. So i guess in theory the worms only last a year… unless they live under heavy mulch and woodchips.

This was fresh mud, which was carved off in case it got below freezing.

Additionally there is a lot of mud and dirt which falls off machines and hauling equip. Lots and lots.

I took a photo today of some of the dirt pushed.

Imagine all the dirt collected on the tracks and every crevice of a dozer. They are made to move in the dirt. The undercarriage is very dirty.

Here’s the dozer I used. Even after 3 hours of cleaning, there is still loads of dirt trapped in the machine. Just pointing out that earth moving equip runs all over and can’t help transmit eggs of jumping worms.

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