Invasive Jumping Worms Are Spreading Throughout the Country
written by Taylor
Cunningham October 25, 2022 9:13 pm
There is a new invasive species threatening ecosystems around
North America—Asian Jumping Worms.
The pest first showed up in Wisconsin and in parts of New
England in 2013. And they quickly spread the states as far south as Georgia.
And in that short time, they’ve already caused irrefutable damage.
Unlike most worms, the Asian jumping variety doesn’t help to
enrich the soil. Instead, it has a “voracious” appetite for humus, which is a
dark organic topsoil that’s formed by decaying insects, animals, and leaves.
Plants, fungi, and other soil life depend on humus for nutrients such as
potassium, calcium, and phosphorus.
A lack of humus affects all layers of the food chain. Without
enough, soil-dwelling insects have nowhere to live, which means birds that eat
those insects also suffer, and so do the birds’ predators and prey.
“Soil is the foundation of life—and Asian
jumping worms change it,” Mac Callaham, a Forest Service researcher and
soil expert, wrote in a Southern Research Station blog post.
I recently gave a presentation to SEA about invasives, and to me what is truly astonishing is out of all environmental issues it is one that has had the least amount of government action taken on it. I could go today and buy 20 invasive plants from home depot that are nearly as environmentally detrimental as any number of chemical pollutants with no semblance of regulation or control on their proliferation.
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