So during this season of plant dividing and swapping, gardeners must be vigilant. McCay, whose research focuses on understanding how the worms invade intact forests, and their effect on forest biodiversity, cautions that “gardeners should do what they can to avoid spreading jumping worms to new areas.” Because the worms typically move into forests from nearby gardens, he said, control in home and community gardens is necessary to slow their invasion into natural habitats. Since then, the worms’ presence has been confirmed in 35 states across the country. Timothy McCay, a biology and environmental studies professor at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. But their existence went largely unnoticed - or perhaps underreported - until the past decade, when ecologists flagged them as problematic, according to Dr.

The insatiable invertebrates, native to east-central Asia, are believed to have been introduced to the United States in the late 1800s, likely as hitchhikers in potted plants. Forest Service wrote in a USDA Southern Research Center blog post published in May.Ī decline in humus would also threaten birds and other wildlife that depend on soil-dwelling insects for food. Plants, fungi and other soil life cannot survive without humus, and “Asian jumping worms can eat all of it,” Sarah Farmer of the U.S.

Meet Amynthas agrestis, also known as “Alabama jumper,” “Jersey wriggler” and the rude-but-accurate “crazy worm.” Unlike garden-variety earthworms, these flipping, thrashing, invasive miscreants are ravenous consumers of humus, the rich, organic, essential top layer of soil formed by dead and decaying small animals, insects and leaf litter in places like forests, plant nurseries and your garden. Just when you think you’ve become accustomed to the spotted lanternfly invasion, along comes another menace to the ecosystem: the Asian jumping worm.

Devour indy