Finally found some more info about the invasive amynthas "jumping" or "crazy" worms that wrecked my garden a couple years ago. All I knew until recently was that they were from Asia, but where in Asia?? Well, most likely Japan, it seems, and also Korea. This researcher found their Japanese names:

Amynthas agrestis: Hatake-mimizu (ハタケミミズ)
Amynthas tokioensis: Fukisoku-mimizu (フキソクミミズ)
Metaphire hilgendorfi: Hitotsumon-mimizu (ヒトツモンミミズ)

It seems that Japanese forest species provide less nutrition in their fallen leaves and needles than north American forest species do. That plus the warmer climes of the USA south is what makes them so devastating here but benign in their native habitat. Still, I wonder whether they do damage to home gardens in Japan, and if so, what people do to counteract them.

#InvasiveSpecies #Amynthas #JumpingWorms #CrazyWorms #Gardening #ecology

https://medium.com/@nigelmills2000/land-of-the-rising-worm-9f77e6100d6d

It's that time of year. My USA and Canada* friends who garden, be on the lookout for invasive Amynthas "jumping" or "crazy" earthworms. There are no indigenous North American earthworms, but unlike the placid European invasive earthworm, these guys harm soil health more than they help. They hang out in the top layer of the soil and eat up all the nutrients. Their casings are not good soil additions. Because of this behavior, they have the potential to devastate our forests.

I found these guys after moving my garbage can. Haven't seen them in my actual garden yet, which might be due to the diatomaceous earth I added to it last fall. They're hard to kill. I'm going to freeze them and then place their bodies around my garden, hoping this will give local birds and toads a taste for them. These guys are small, they must be fairly recently hatched. At adulthood they can be 6 inches or more, easily. They also reproduce asexually after about 60 days of life. So every worm removed at this stage is a victory. New York winters kill the worms, but not their eggs.

How to tell Amynthas apart from European earthworms:

-clitellum (collar) is smooth, red, and goes all the way around. Not white, raised, and partially around the body

-their casings--see pic--and their effect on the soil. They give it a coarse sort of coffee grounds texture

-vigorous activity when touched or disturbed. They jump, squirm, climb, writhe like snakes. If you come across a bunch of them at once, it can be unnerving

Killing them is hard. If you heat or treat the soil, you kill other invertebrates and microorganisms too. Mustard solution makes them rise to the top, makes them easier to catch. Chopping them up just makes more worms. So, freeze them or drown them in alcohol. They'll eventually drown in water too, but they'll climb right out of an open bucket. As I mentioned earlier, mixing diatomaceous earth into garden beds seems to deter them.

Anyway good luck! It's not easy trying to garden in this climate-changing, mass-extinction, species-invading world.

*Edited update--I was overly optimistic in thinking they hadn't made it to Canada yet. (They've been migrating slowly northward from the Gulf Coast for the past 100 years or so.)

#Worms #gardening #InvasiveSpecies #earthworms #amynthas #JumpingWorms

Aw man, I'm bummed that I seem to have discovered a "jumping worm" or "crazy worm" crawling out of my yard. They're very damaging to forest ecosystems, even worse than the previously introduced European earthworms: https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2024/04/01/invasive-earthworms-threaten-forests-and-gardens-and-mitigation-has-proven-difficult/

I was planning to remove my non-native bushes from my yard and give them to a neighbor this weekend, but now I have to question doing that if it's possible that would help the #invasive #worms spread.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/213266335

#Amynthas #JumpingWorm #CrazyWorm