"Alabama jumpers"??

Paul

Amynthas Agrestis, aka Alabama jumpers thrive in dense clay soils very powerful worm. Referred to as a commercial worm, often added to gardens as they make very vigorous aerators

Cool!

Paul

Do not add these to your garden--they are invasive aka "crazy snake worms" (A. agrestis).

Invasive? A worm?

Yes. They are not native, and they're disrupting forest ecosystems and pushing out native worms. http://marquette.uwex.edu/files/2014/06/Crazy-worms-fact-sheet.pdf

Of course, in some areas, they may already be something to be resigned to. I think it depends on their status and the state of the ecosystems in your area.

A lot of worms are invasive--not all are the beneficial friendlies we assume they are. I just found this out relatively recently.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_earthworms_of_North_America

Red wigglers/E. foetida don't survive cold winters, so their invasiveness is limited in parts of the country where it freezes.

All worm species are invasive. At least where I am (Wisconsin). It's illegal to sell, introduce, transport, possess and propagate the Alabama jumper.

http://sandyacrepines.com/alabama-jumper-is-a-serious-threat/

Only about a third of earthworm species in the US are invasive, but the proportion of those that are increases as you go north. Native worms live deeper in the soil than many invasive species, which is why invasive species disrupt forest ecosystems, because they process the nutrients in the decomposing leaf layers at the surface more quickly than the species there evolved to use them.

I have these in my community garden plot. They reproduce asexually all summer long. The amount of organic matter they turn into little BBs is horrifying. I haven't found any information on how to live with the things. The past two years I have replenished my beds with well rotted horse manure because it is the easiest thing I can get (into bins & buckets, into my hatchback). I've had very poor seed germination. Don't know if that is from some pH issue I have created with all the horse, or if it's the worms or just bad luck. *sigh* One more thing that is making gardening not much fun.