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cboyan

Hammerhead worms

9 years ago

Does anyone have experiences with them? They are earthworm predators.

Comments (8)

  • 9 years ago

    This will sound totally bizarre, but i was hoping that anyone who has them in their area might sell me some. My problem is that a species of earthworm, Amynthas Agrestis aka the Alabama Jumper has invaded my woods. It reproduces and feeds on fallen leaves so quickly that the native shade loving plants that I love can no longer survive and gives troublesome invasive plants an advantage. Im hoping that if I introduce a predator, it may alleviate my problems by at least a small degree.

  • 9 years ago

    I don't think biological control is something you want to DIY like that. If you're lucky it won't work at all: if you're unlucky it'll do well, kill a lot of things you didn't intend to kill and maybe permanently damage the ecosystem even further.

  • 9 years ago

    The species that looks most promising, Bipalium kewense, apparently feeds exclusively on earthworms.

  • 9 years ago

    These things ( wildlife interaction and balance ) are very tricky. I would ask the agricultural / cooperative extension in your local county government offices.

    BTW, I've heard of this. Wooded ecosystems that tradionally had a deep bed of decaying leaf 'litter.' When composting worms 'went wild' that leaf bed was consumed and the previously soft forest floor became hard packed dirt, or eroded away. Needless to stay 'things' needing the leaf bed perished.

    cboyan thanked Kevin (Poconos PA 6b)
  • 9 years ago

    It is a real, and very big problem in specific areas. It seems that there are no native earthworms in approximately the area of North America where glaciers once extended, but a lot of worms have come into forested areas through agriculture, horticulture and even fishermen dumping out extra fishing worms in natural areas. The exotic worms disrupt the natural cycling of the leaf litter in those forests leading to all kinds of problems in the ecosystem.


    However, there are no good ways to get the invasive earthworms out of an area once they're in it. Even the most efficient earthworm predators never get them all, and anything toxic enough to kill the worms would of course kill plenty of other things in an unintended manner. I'm not aware of any efforts to use biological controls in those forested areas where invasive earthworms are a problem - there just isn't anything available that's effective enough, safe enough and targeted enough.

  • 9 years ago

    If its not illegal to ship them i would live some alabama jumpers to fish with if anyone has anu they want to get rid of or have captured

  • 9 years ago

    It should be illegal. I think the only option left for me is to lower the ph with sulfur and grow blueberries. Earthworms dislike highly acidic soil, correct?

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