Wanted: early birds

By GLYNIS HART
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WINDSOR, Vt. — Alabama jumpers, Jersey wrigglers, Georgia jumpers, crazy snake worms. If it sounds like an invasion, it is. 

Although most people know that the majority of worms on this continent are non-native, a fast-moving East Asian species, amynthas, may pose a threat to forest life in the Northeast — including maple trees and ground-nesting birds. And while many gardeners accept worms as beneficial for the soil, these amped-up worms, especially Amynthas agrestis — the one found in New Hampshire — out-compete beneficial worms and native species. 

Jumping worms look a lot like nightcrawlers, or if you’re not a worm scholar, any other worm. But they don’t act like them. 

“The way they feel when you pick them up is really different,” said Education Center Program Coordinator Emma Erler of New Hampshire Extension at Goffstown. “They feel really rigid and muscular and they thrash around. They do move like snakes — that’s what freaks a lot of gardeners out.” 

Handled roughly, they even shed their tails. 

Because of their vigor, the worms are a favorite of anglers who buy live bait. Anyone can buy 1,000 Alabama jumpers on Amazon for $77.99, although the internet retailer notes that Wisconsin and Hawaii prohibit their import. “The Worm Dude” on line touts Alabama Jumpers as “the perfect dirt worm” and will mail them to you for slightly more than Amazon charges. 

However, the worms escape easily from compost piles and tackle boxes, and that’s where the trouble begins. For one thing, a single worm can reproduce all on its own, so it only takes one to start a new population. Jumping worms reproduce faster, eat more, and spread farther than nightcrawlers, the European worm they closely resemble. 

“They feed at the surface and consume the leaf litter layer,” said Erler. “They eat a ton of organic matter.” 

“They get really big,” she continued. “Up to eight inches long.”

Jumping worms have invaded forests in Vermont, where their consumption of that top layer of dead leaves and duff can leave the ground too bare to support native plants, insects, and microbiota. Observers can see a “worm front” where a population of invading worms turn the green forest floor into bare dirt. 

Trees like sugar maples, that derive their nutrition from that layer of organic matter, suffer from the worms eating it first. Soil quality diminishes as the crumbly, coffee-grounds-like castings of the jumping worms release nutrients where surface water runoff can carry them away. Small plants that provide cover for ground-nesting birds die back. 

According to a Cornell Cooperative Extension fact sheet, “In areas of heavy infestation, native plants, soil invertebrates, salamanders, birds and other animals may decline. Jumping worms can severely damage roots of plants in nurseries, gardens, forests and turf. They, along with other invasive worms, can also help spread invasive plant species by disturbing the soil.” 

Josef Görres of the University of Vermont studies jumping worms, and a map showing where they’ve been found can be reached through his website. That map shows the worms right across the border from Claremont, in Windsor. 

In New Hampshire, jumping worms have been confirmed by the Urban Forestry Center in Portsmouth. 

“We’ve been hearing a lot from gardeners in the seacoast area,” said Erler. “One of the biggest ways they’re spreading is gardeners sharing plant material.” 

Unfortunately, if the worms have spread to your garden, there’s not much you can do. Görres writes in his blog: “I have them at my house too and curse them every time I buy more mulch for my ornamental beds. They love mulch and go through it as though there was no tomorrow.”

“They’ll even go through wood chips,” said Erler. “There isn’t really anything you can do to kill them without harming other beneficial arthropods. There aren’t any practical solutions for homeowners.” 

Great Lakes Worm Watch and various universities, including the University of New Hampshire, are tracking the spread of the worms. Meanwhile, the best thing people can do is slow down the spread: don’t buy them for fish bait or compost piles, and be careful when buying compost or sharing plants. 

“You just don’t want to give them to anybody else,” said Erler.