This doesn't really answer your question, but yesterday I saw a slug on one of my plants so I sprayed with a 10% vinegar/water solution. It killed the slug on contact and about 5 minutes or less later I saw a giant worm come out of the ground and head away from that spot. Apparently he didn't care for the vinegar.

Mariann

the worms carrying 'bad worm eggs' sounds like someones 'urban legend', or maybe just a bad dream - worms don't 'carry' anything, and I've never heard of earthworms being a bird parasite cause - but for the question, yes a thick layer of coarse sand might help keep them down, but you'd also have to keep it dry - the ashes would be a bad idea for a variety of reasons - beyond that, I can't think of anything other then a 'scorched earth' sorta scenario that would work long term, except some type of ground covering like remay landscape fabric [the orange oil, available usually at pharmacies, would be extremely expensive and have to prolly be renewed very frequently]

Bill

Im a bit confused too, I thought earthworms were a good food source for a lot of birds, including wild birds and fowl. do you know what the bad worms are? are they some type of poisonous earthworm? or do mean the earthworms are carrying eggs for parasitic worms like intestinal worms?

The veterinarian told us that the gape worms in our peafowl came from them eating earthworms. I hadn't thought to question this till I read your post, sqeeze. But a quick internet search shows that this, indeed, is the case.

"The life cycle of the gapeworm is similar to that of the cecal worm; the parasite can be transmitted when birds eat embryonated worm eggs or earthworms containing the gapeworm larvae. The female worm lays eggs in the trachea, the eggs are coughed up, swallowed, and pass out in the droppings. Within eight to fourteen days the eggs embryonate and are infective when eaten by birds or earthworms. The earthworm, snails and slugs serve as primary intermediate hosts for the gapeworm. Gapeworms in infected earthworms remain viable for four and a half years while those in snails and slugs remain infective for one year. After being consumed by the bird, gapeworm larvae hatch in the intestine and migrate from the intestine to the trachea and lungs."

I also learned that most of the 'bad worms' are not transported by earthworms, slugs or snails. However, since we had a confirmed case of gape worm, I still need to keep the earthworms at bay. And evidently for at least four years, yikes! I certainly need a cheaper solution than orange oil!

Here is a link that might be useful: website of quoted info

I think the only thing to do is get the birds off the ground. I don't know if that would be practical with your coop situations.

Chuckiebtoo

"Gapeworms are best prevented by administering a wormer at fifteen to thirty day intervals or including a drug at low levels continuously beginning fifteen days after birds are placed in the infected pens."

did your vet discuss this with with you? If they didnt then it sounds like something you need to bring up with them.

the only thing I can think of is if you line the pen with landscape cloth to put a barrier between the birds and the ground. over time landscape cloth tends to suffocate the soil life underneath so it should make it less worm friendly too.

Earthworms do, indeed, harbor several poultry parasites and it is excellent that Sweetgreen is aware of this since many poultrymen seem not to be! If you want a list of parasitic species associated with earthworms, let me know and I will provide one.

There are four species of tapeworm infectious in chickens that cannot complete their lifecyle without being ingested by earthworms, and some parastic nematodes that pass their laval stage in earthworm bodies. Earthworms that are given a feedstock of chicken litter should never be themselves fed to chickens due to the risk of amplifying the parasite in the flock and earthworm activity is usually discouraged in chicken pens due to parasite concerns.

I'm afraid I do not have a good answer for your initial question, how to discourage earthworms from the chicken yard, Sweetgreen. There are no "rememdies" like those you describe in your options wish list with which I am familiar. The ubiquitous nature of earthworm activity is one reason that birds are routinely treated for paratsite prevention.

I apologize for not being more helpful with this!

Kelly S

kelly this has got me wondering now, do our red wrigglers pose any risks for people aswell e.g. with parasites etc? should us "worm farmers" be extra careful after fiddling in our worm bins?

No, earthworms do not present a risk of parasite infection in humans. Nature is pretty canny, and since we share almost no physiology with earthworms, and since regular interaction with earthworms is not "normal" behavior in humans, parasties that prey on us will tend to have no assiciation with earthworms. Earthworms hold no value to human parasites since worms are neither a food source for them nor do they assist the parasite in reaching us. It makes great sense for poultry parasites to use earthworms as intermediary hosts (a host that aids the parasite in completing its lifecycle) or reservior hosts (a host that acts as a vessel for transferance of the parasite to a permanent host, but has not impact on the parasite growth or lifecycle), however, because many poultry species evolved to eat worms. The parasite connection between worm and chicken, therefore, makes sense.

The bottom line is that earthworms themselves pose no particular health risks to us. Love them at will!

Kelly S

Thank you, Kelly, for the further info. And though I'm sad that there is no easy answer to banning earthworms from the chicken yard, I'm glad to know that much. Thanks also for clearing up that this only affects birds, and not humans. I certainly don't want to be the cause of a movement of vermicomposters to start handling their worms with sterile gloves or some such silliness.

I'm just not thrilled with the idea of using conventional 'wormers' on the birds as this stuff is the same drug as is used in chemotherapy on humans - really. When it's needed, by all means I'll give it to the birds, but can you imagine going thru chemo treatments just as a preventative to cancer, for instance?? It's probably not quite that severe, but still, I don't like it. The labels and the vet tell you that you can't eat the eggs, the eggs won't be fertile, etc. for weeks after treatment with the drugs. It just can't be a good thing on a regular basis.

At this point, my best option is like chuckiebtoo mentioned, get the birds off the ground. More money than I wanted to spend, but a wire floor should keep the birds away from any worms; good, bad or otherwise. Thanks all.

thanks for the explanation kelly, it makes perfect sense when you put it like that.

also, good luck to you sweetgreen, I hope you can get on top of the problem because it sounds like a horrible thing to be happening to the birds

I salt my pens every month to keep the earthworms out. I put about 5 boxes of morton or off brand table salt per pen and spread every inch of my pens also a foot past the edge of the pens. It wont hurt your birds but the earth worms hate it. I lost a lot of peafowl before doing this even though I wormed my birds. I hope this will help you also.