What controversy?

Chuckiebtoo

Chuckiebtoo,

Sorry if I was vague; I guess I should have said "issue". Are worms truly bad for some ecosystems, such as the previously glaciated hardwood forests mentioned? I'd had personally never heard of such a thing; everything opinion I've ever encountered was that worms were good for soil with no caveats... The Minnesota Dept. of Natural Resources seems to have an strong opinion on the subject, (I used to do field work with them in the mid 80's). Or is this an overstated threat to native plant species. (BTW, I did a search of previous posts to this forum using the keyword "invasive" with zero results).

Regards,

Mike

Mike, check out this thread on the Soil, Compost and Mulch forum:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/soil/msg031636485508.html?27

Kelly S

Kelly,

Sorry, I didn't want to rehash a subject that was so recently aired! I didn't realize from the general subject line that it went so in depth about this issue. But, thanks for the link; alot of good info! On the subject of the "curly" worms that rizzir mentioned; I may have seen them also! But when I looked at them very closely, they more resembled giant planaria, (from the flatworm family). They had the same arrow-shaped head with two eyespots, but because they were up to 6" long the head wasn't as obvious. I've only seen them when the soil in my yard is very saturated and they do look a lot like sickly, skinny earthworms, (kind of like those left in their bait containers for much too long).

Mike ;)

Hi,

My green worms were correctly ID'd by Kelly as Allolobophora chlorotica, the common green worm, which is originally from Eurasia. It is definitely an Oligochaete, not a Planaria (eewwwwwww, I can't stand worms that are not of the earthworm variety - they gross me out!) It is found in the subsoil, not the topsoil, as it feeds on the nutrients that have filtered down into the subsoil and wouldn't live in nutrient-rich soil. It also prefers wettish conditions. It may be the host of the Cluster Fly larvae, but I am questioning that - hopefully Kelly will see my question and answer it. I learned all this from doing Google searches on the species.

-Regina (rizzir)