Attack of the killer worms?

You decide. Here's the Rotten Tomatoes review:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/children_of_men/#synopsis
Note that it's based on a novel; if you'd rather read the book.

Just a silly thought: Aren't more people concerned about worms eating them after they're laid to rest; instead of worms destroying living plants? Perhaps, you'd motivate more people by ridding them of a personal fear with the same end result--you'd save the Aspen forests. LOL

See: Sustainable Alternatives: Green to the End
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/799770/
I also enjoy the folks that post on this forum. They really got me thinking.

Hello Everyone
I just found this thread - interesting take(s) on these issues.

GreenB - I know this isn't the main point of this thread...but are worms carnivores? If so, I see a market for a 'body treatment' to make oneself unattractive to hungry worms..of course it would be targeted to those who don't recycle...

NC population growth for the last few years (at least in my area) is mostly related to hispanic immigration and subsequent offspring.. That may be slowing in favor of people of all sorts of backgrounds - native born and not - moving in from the northeast and lesser so from the midwest. I would say that it has been the majority 2/3 - 66% of the growth related to hispanic immigration in our area. We have some marvelous mexican restaurants and many new start up businesses as a result. Several friends are taking spanish classes (leaning towards medical conversation) (apparently Spanish language classes weren't offered in school in the south years ago as it was in the north --along with that very necessary latin class!)

So - back to the worm issue: to make it simple for us simple minded garderners --(I know it is not a simple issue and has many sides and nuances..and I have read almost all above) and since I can't tell a naturally born worm from an import.... if you are in your garden...and you dig up the occasional worm... leave it alone to do what worms do for the garden...but if you dig up a handful in just a few scoops...consider weeding them out, right? One thing that got my attention in the thread above is that when I find a plant not doing well, and the root system looks like it has been under attack...I just figure it is voles - I have never thought about worms or worm damage. I feel sure I would notice a ton of worms clinging but I would have definitely overlooked a few. This thread reminded me of Dune.... too bad the worms don't leave the 'spice' in their wake.

Sofer - I wonder why transplanted worms would displace those that have been here for a long time...shouldn't the native worms have a better, stronger more environmentally supportive infrastructure and be better equipped to manage the intruder? Maybe it is more like the way the natives here succumbed to disease brought in by the europeans. Something about the worms that are toxic to the native. Other than that...they eat, excrete, tunnel, mate etc. all similiarly don't they? Why aren't these imports behaving or impacting their environment much the same as the natives? I don't see where it has been mentioned that it is a population "numbers" issue. If the excretion is alkaline... isn't native worm excretion similiar? etc. .

I have referenced this thread in one of my articles for further information on the worm problem.

Ahem!

I guess my metaphor was missed. I am going back to the worms as requested in the thread topic (Worms) and continuing the discussion of population growth here in USA.
And I am not threatened by a group of worms that come in and make leaf into worm castings even if the weaker plants do not like it. As a Darwinian I am not afraid of change in the lower levels of plant species. After all I have in my garden eliminated weeds and selectively chosen less robust species to pro dominate. That is why it is MY garden.

This message was edited Jan 27, 2008 12:01 PM

Not a missed metaphor in your words, Sofer, I got it! But as my 90 year old gardening uncle says, "It is not always good to stir things up." And so I didn't. But your point was not missed and was well taken. Thanks.

I got it too Sofer!

As gardeners we are selective in all of the plants and soil types we chose. I cannot believe that by our changing our climax forests we have introduced the worm opportunities to the decidious forests that have claimed the Conifer forests that existed. Deer are another critter that have expanded into the northern forests due to this arboreal diversity. I for one like the mixed hardwood, softwood, and conifer forests that have come to be accepted in Michigan. Where before only white pine, spruce, and other giants existed. I went to Hartwick pines 2 years ago and found that all of the old growth trees that were highlighted and preserved are all dead. The supposition was pollution as the cause of death. Maybe the biodiversity of the "new" forests was a good idea. Otherwise we may have no forests now.

The homocentricity of this thread just boggles my mind! We Homo sapiens sapiens are not now, nor ever will be, "in charge" of running the planet. But we like to THINK we are. Just ask any politician. Suspect the dinosaurs were "Dynocentric" too. Who could argue with them? They were the top of the food chain at the time. Now we only see fossil evidence of their "superiority". But where are they now? The same place we will be a million years from now. Species come and species go in Nature's grist mill. Homo sapiens sapiens is just another one of them. Of course, we've got the "God" concept to help sustain us...but who's to say the dynosaurs didn't have that concept down pat, too, and where did it get them? Fossils can't reveal hypothetical constructs, nor their effects. Sure wish they could!!

But years from now when they dig up Las Vegas the joke will be on whoever. "Look they built huge temples to these Gods". LOL. "They built a large water system out to the desert to worship". LOL. "All the roads lead to Las Wages, they even built mountian passes." LOL. Whish I could see what they come up with 20,000 years from now. Mountain temples in Lake Tahoe.

I cannot agree with you more.

Not exactly. Some species of worms eat from the surface and excrete it through the top layers of the soil while others burrow vertically and take the food way down into the depths where it is no longer available as nutrients for many shallow rooted plants and trees. So the type of worms affects the soil structure. Also, the type of burrowing done by different species allow more water and air to penetrate into the subsoils than others.

Nature has an amazing number of species and each one fills a different function even when we Homo sapiens don't understand what that function is.

Its called complementary distribution - each in its own niche.

And isn't that the point, gloria125: to each species it's own temporal niche? Temporal supremacy, but long term dissolution? Seems to be an irresolute pattern over millions of years...

British Empire?

NY Yankees...

MSU basketball. Go spartans!

The time line for a species survival seems to related to adaptability to changes in its niche - effective predators, climate and other environmental changes, and encroachment by another species seem to be effective means of termination.

In the end all are "battleshipshaped curves" of the graph of existence.

What does a battleship curve look like? I suppose a sharp rapid decline to 0.

0 at both ends, 100 % in the middle. Some are short and fat, some have a longer run.

Ouch!