Earthworms as villains? Heresy!

PudgyMudpies found this site for me. http://64.4.22.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=c70de7cd4730a8505c29a4ee2c67822c&lat=1071019031&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2ednr%2estate%2emn%2eus%2fexotics%2fterrestrialanimals%2fearthworms%2findex%2ehtml

I would like to have a discussion with anyone who might know more, or could point some further information. Right now it seems only Minnesota has any input into this.

Earthworms are bad for plants? Heresy!

the link is not working for me. I get a Hotmail error message.

site does not work Kathy. here is the message i get " Your email message has been idle and this link has become inactive. To access the link, close this window and return to your MSN Hotmail Message. Then click the browser's Refresh button or close your message and reopen it. "

that's weird, i do not even have any email opened.

Someone has been messing with my hotmail too I also get message about email.

I'm goin out on a limb and calling baloney I have never seen an earthworm in the roots of my cabbage but have seen lots of little grub like worms. Ernie

I did a search and came up with this. I don't know if this is the one she is referring to or not, but it has to do with worms eating a particular plant and involves some research done in Minnesota, also affects Michigan and Wisconsin.
If I didn't get the right one I apologize.
Hope this helps
Alice


http://wmuma.com/caretaker/alienanimals/worminvasiongoblins.html

DUH! Another "study".

The link might have been in one of those MSN today things, which provides a temporary URL to an article. Why they don't just link to a static URL, I don't know.

Anyway, about the worms...What a crock, err, can of worms they're opening with that!

Well, if it's true that earthworms are not native to northern North America, and I have to wonder how they figured that out, then their introduction has certainly done more good than harm. Unlike many introduced species, both flora and fauna . . .

Besides, I think the (natural) migration was inevitable.

But that's just me ...

Cheri'

It's kind of ironic: scientists expound on the inevitability of evolution - how plants and animals adapt or become extinct as the environment changes over time. But then they they bemoan the fact that humans introduce new plants or animals into an environment, and a change ensues.

Assuming there were no earthworms in North America prior to the immigration and westward migration of European settlers, then wasn't their introduction just an action that serves to further the evolutionary process?

Especially since they are only saying that the northern part of the US and up were once worm-deprived ... if we hadn't brought them from across the pond, they would eventually migrate from down south. Granted, worms prolly take a mighty long time to migrate ... LOL! I'm sure we speeded things up.

I hate to see anything become extinct due to human interference, but I can't think of worms as bad. Would the US have been able to grow as much food without the worm? I kinda doubt it. And I think that would have been a bad thing.

Cheri'

To build upon Terry's irony, another irony is that Charles Darwin said something to the effect that life on earth as we know it would not be possible without earthworms.

I think I read in Wall Street Journal that earthworms were bad for forests. I don't think they mentioned plants. (My memory is not completely reliable however)

Sorry I haven't been here for a few days. Chemistry called again :(

The link was to Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources, and it seemed to be written as though a middle-schooler had done it for a science fair project. Or maybe just written down to their level.

Anyway, since I have a backyard made of mostly primary woodland, I have had a lot of opportunity to check on the worm population through the years (we bought the land in '68 -- never cleared woods). Yep, lots and lots of the pink wigglers around, and the severely heavy clay doesn't seem to influence their presence or absence. The "forest duff layer" that they are being accused of consuming to the detriment of the trees doesn't seem to be shrinking in volume over-much. (Although I do artificially add lots and lots of other stuff to the floor, not just native vegetation.)

I am very hesitant to do anything that might affect the health of these beauties, so I am not about to start a general worm-killing just on the basis of one report. And especially not when it was written in a very non-scientific manner.

In areas of my backyard where there is little dead organic stuff on the ground, the worm population doesn't seem to be quite as high, but that could also be because there is very little cover for them. I have a lot of songbirds in residence, and they do a fair job of consuming the worms (and other insects, etc.)

Anyone else have woodland that they have observed for a few years?