Attack of the killer worms?

I know that this is a bit off topic, but something just made me thing of it. I LOVE GUMMY WORMS! Remember the worm song? Nobody likes me... I just taught it to my gr-d. She had me sing it over & over, so that she could learn it. What are gr-mas for?

These giant worms would have giant castings. Oh Boy! I have always wanted to "shovel/ fork" worm castings. My garden would be totally excited. Where do I go to import Dune worms. That would give the local worms something to worry about.

We just happen to have a bag of sour gummy worms in the cupboard. You must be a cool grandma greenbrain!

Ummm, just found out the movie Dune was a B rated horror flick from my husband.

Would castings from a few of these suffice in a pinch?
http://visindavefur.hi.is/myndir/megascolides_090506.jpg
There ya go sofer, import some Megascolides australis. Those should satiate your desire to shovel/fork worm castings ;)

Nice little buggers. Just think the big fish you could catch with these. Thanks Equil I need to import a few million of these and really wreck the survival of under-story plants. Though these might be able to break up the granite shist here in Montana that the glaciers were unable to convert to soil.

I thought they were kinda cute in a wormie kinda way. Bet American Moms are cringing at the thought of kids wiggling those in their faces!

Glad to be of service sofer ;)

Worm Hugging is my specialty but I still found this thread to be very interesting and can see that like most things, there is a time and place for everything... even worms.

I had heard several years ago that there are areas where the earth worm has altered the ecology to the extent that some species were now all but extinct there. I did not realize that the problem could happen anywhere. So I will continue enjoying my wormy friends in the garden and start reading more about their ill effects on the forests.

I do know that the ferns I planted in a worm filled shade bed thrived for many years as did the other native forest plants I was using at that time. But I also know that when I dug up a few plants in the forest duff to bring them to my garden, I never saw a single worm in that native forest soil.

Even a worm lover like myself will admit that we need to see these things from a wide angle and not with blinders on.

if worms are making havoc and don't belong in woodland areas , then where do they belong ?
I can say that i have 37 acres of woodlands .if worms are destroying leaves in woodland areas at an enourmous rate . Then why is my woodlands got a carpet of leaves on it ? mushrooms,new sapplings, carpeted with green moss and other stuff.
Hey glad i found this thread
May i join in the worm extravaganza
ok so here is my dumb question
How do you know if a worm is Japanese or american ? I mean the big scientist have told us but if i m in my garden and digging
around . Do i say "hello " or do i say " Konichewah "
Zany i think you hit it on target
Go worms !!
sue

Sue, I don't know if they are Japanese, European, or Canadian but my worms definately donot speak English ;~)

I did a little research on my own this morning. I went into a forested area and dug down into the duff...no worms. Then down deeper into the top soil... no worms. I dug up a fern, a wild rose and a pacific woods iris and still no worms. Then I went to a pasture nearby and found worms in every shovelful of soil. But when I dug into an open meadow where no stock has been pastured I found worms but not as many as in the pasture.

From this I am guessing that the forest duff here is simply not considered to be worm food by the worms. That could also explain why my compost pile is breaking down very slowly. The worms will feed on the greens and the paper but they are not eating the redwood needles which must break down slowly on their own...

So I guess it depends upon the type of forest as to whether the worms would cause problems or not. I still need to do some research on it since my curiosity has been piqued.

I don't believe all worms are wreaking havoc. Ohio has some native earthworms.

I ran into another interesting article on earthworms while trying to find somebody from Ohio who you might be able to contact to ask for specific information for where you garden-
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/agupdate/0611_research.html
There is an e-mail address to a Candance Pollock from Ohio buried in there and it's been my experience these people who are researching earthworms will bend over backwards to answer any questions they may know the answer to. You could probably call Ohio State University and get a phone number to her too. If you are able to contact her, would you please share what her reply is?

maybe if i offer some sushi.
Good read on that link
Hmmm
once the ground unfreezes i might have to do some digging myself

sushi- blech! ;)

I found this research paper to be very informative. At least for me and my earthworm buddies it looks good since mine have been identified as a native species ;~)

It also gives some examples of how the introduction of non native worms can and should be taken seriously without the need for widespread panic. Not all areas are going to be acceptable breeding grounds for introduced species.

Simple steps such as not dumping left over worm bait into the forests is good start. Those who import special worms for vermicomposting should take extra pains to insure the worms they use are not going to cause harm to the surrounding areas and they should not dump the non native worms into the land if they tire of the vermicomposting process.

Not all non native worms can or will become a problem. But we need more research to evaluate the potential damage BEFORE we introduce them rather than after.

http://www.nrri.umn.edu/worms/research/publications/Callaham%20et%20al%202006.pdf.

Now, I really need to go dump todays tea bags and coffee grounds into the compost heap ... my precious wiggly friends deserve a treat.

Your hyperlink didn't work for me.

Is this the publication you were trying to share, if so... it's very good-
http://www.nrri.umn.edu/worms/research/publications/Callaham%20et%20al%202006.pdf

editing to add a link to a decent dichotomous key to earthworms in the Great Lakes-
http://www.nrri.umn.edu/worms/identification/index.html

This message was edited Jan 21, 2008 9:55 PM

Hey did you guys ever see the movie Grumpier Old Men
when Walter Mathew and Sophia Loren are out looking for night crawlers on a date . lol cute is was.
Hmmm good reads on the links
Still reading some of them .

Yes, that's the one. Thank you for the working link.

that is a great link

I'm going to take time off the computer and watch "Earth without humans." I'll look closely for worms...
Carol

"Earth without humans" What would the relevance of that be? Regardless of how we believe man came into existence on the planet his presence is a part of the on going evolution of it. To exclude mankind from the process is the same as excluding any other creature or insect. The only difference is that mankind is capable of better understanding his role here and it's affect upon the rest of the world.

Regardless of our understanding, or lack there of, we are a part of the natural order of things. Our footprints may have more immediate impact than that of what we call lower life forms but does that make us less important as a species? Less desirable, more expendable? Less a part of nature?

We hear the term "balance of nature" and usually it is used as if we are the cause of an imbalance rather than being a part of the imbalance.

We can learn to be better stewards of the earth because of our unique abilities. But to try to set ourselves aside and seek to eliminate our impact entirely would be impossible. We are as integral a part of that balance as the lowliest of insects or the most ferocious of the dinosaurs.

I hope that your headaches ease up and that you can get back to enjoying life.

IMHO humans are not "a part of the balance" as we function today. If humans continue with their present activities into the future then humans will have utterly and completely exhausted most of the earth's resources and polluted beyond use the remaining. We have no natural pedator to keep us in balance, except disease.

I watched it last night. It was very interesting. I missed how humans dissapeared and everything else stayed. Everyone should watch this one.

Zany, the relevance being only, that as our species goes extinct for what ever reason, worms, I'm sure will still be here and the fact of worm species introductions and dispersal in different parts of the world will, in no way be the pro or con of their existance. They will be here far longer than the human species. To sum it up, all our efforts to eradicate one specie in favor of another will, in the distant future, be just a minor blip on the radar of earth's continuing evolution, including extinctions of all kinds. We are witnessing some of the extinctions as I type. I don't advocate throwing up our hands and giving up our efforts to reduce or reverse the detrimental effects we have had on our fragile planet, on the contrary, I applaud any positive environmental good works. But, there will be complete environment upheavals and replacement ecosystems in all parts of the world, in spite of our best efforts at this point. I see it at the 60th parallel and farther north. Think globally, act locally is an admirable stand, although it will take a back burner when the San Andreas fault slips up to Seattle and the oceans continue to rise. The documentary, "Earth without humans" is just a forward look at the effects of nature on manmade structures up to a thousand years from now. Kind of like trying to find traces of mankind in America and Europe in the future, as we have looked in the archeological aspect of mankind's past. As the fact that the Sahara desert was once a green lush savannah and the Great Plains of North America was once a great sea.
Scraping forest floors to find worms sounds like fun, though.
Carol

Nope, my bet is on the cockroach being left standing ;)

Roaches on the surface and worms underneath... there's a lovely thought!

I admit that I saw the show but I disagree with the most prevalent mammal being the predator of mammals. Because what ever took out us took them also. We all know that insect is going to be the chosen one and anything that feasts on that will pro dominate. So I vote for bats, birds and raptors as leading at the top of the food chain.

Oh but chocolate covered grasshoppers can be so tasty... as long as you don't know what you are eating ;)

Cockroach is the hardest thing to kill off. I would say bugs and deep sea creatures would live through almost anything. Keith Richards also.

Keith Richards... Now you've touched my heart! He looks to be a thousand, but he's still the man!
OK, Mick has been pretty good too.

Actually I like just grasshoppers. We ate them in explorer scouts for a survival weekend and I have to say short of a little bitterness they were good. Maggots were the best. Kind of like chicken but greasy.

Yummy:~) you just gave the reason many of us would never make it through a survivors course!

Were the maggots you ate cooked or "fresh"? If I was starving I'm sure I'd eat just about anything.

Fresh out of a big log. Just rip open the log and pick the delicacies.

I know I've eaten silkworm pupae and maggots before but they were both definitely cooked. If they were right out of a log, I'd have to be starving. Either that or I'd have to close my eyes, drop them in my mouth, and swallow without chewing.

I think I'd be happy to eat them, provided they were gutted first. I'd not mind eating the insect meat, but don't like the idea of the half-digested gut contents and shortly-to-be-turds toward the lower end!

Resin

Think of them as canned shrimps that haven't been deveined that one dumps into their shrimp salad. Add a little pepper to mask the "shortly-to-be-turds" and no one would be the wiser!

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=435382149&size=l
Read how the person who took the photo uses them.
"I bought six cans of these. The contents of one can went in a stir-fry; the contents of the other I used as a pizza topping. They have a rather earthy flavor and the texture of a soggy raisin. The picture on the can really doesn't do it for me."

I'm truly ok eating them and I think everyone else would be ok eating them but they'd probably have to be cooked first. Fresh out of a log and I suppose most would gag unless we roasted them on the end of a stick like a marshmallow before eating them.

Here's another image I found online-
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=331311474&size=l
This person states, "Think green flavored potato chips"

Half the time when you're traveling in another country you can't even read the menus so you sort of point to the photos or fake food displays and order based on what looks appealing. Great way to sample new foods because you generally don't even find out until after you've eaten your meal and enjoyed it what exactly it was that you ate.

We had to taste the buggers so we could describe to our leader the flavor. I thought butter. Quite pleasant. There was no guts that I noticed besides the dark end.

Just remember, this is for survival training - not gourmet dining. I liked them roasted, but if the people training you are just waiting for the smell of smoke, take them as you get them. It's really only for a few days anyway. Lack of sleep is much worse than eating a few critters that you've already been told won't kill you. I gotta tell you - this is still the nuttiest thread I've seen here. Enjoy.

I saw a little bit of a show called Surivor Man. This guy was drinking his own urine. I'm thinking sleep deprivation is a far better fate than that type of a beverage combined with raw maggots but what do I know.

No peony01 - it gets really strange when Equil starts in on her love affair with slime molds. Bleck!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh, slime molds. Those are truly beautiful! Such vibrant colors too! Which one is your favorite?

The dead, bleached out one.