Earthworms: quick question - LawnSite.com™

starry night · #1 04-24-2009, 10:50 PM

Does the presence of a good quantity of earthworms in soil mean that it is good "working" soil........or not necessarily?

growingdeeprootsorganicly · #2 04-24-2009, 10:54 PM

chances are good.

Smallaxe · #3 04-25-2009, 12:02 AM

Love to see the earthworms...

terrapro · #4 04-25-2009, 06:55 AM

Most likely good. A lack of earthworms is definately bad.

They can also be an ecological indicator like frogs. The more healthy frogs in an area the better, the more earthworms in an area the better. If the water is full of toxins then there will be less frogs, same with soil and worms.

cudaclan · #5 04-25-2009, 09:44 PM

Conventional methods (synthetic) of controlling grubs and lawn/turf predatory insects will harm earthworms. I can attest to this since implementing an organic approach. During heavy rainfall, the earthworms will surface and crawl on our driveway. We carefully pick them up and return them to the lawn. The robins are content with the benefits as well. The downside is the lawn is dug-up from skunks and raccoons in search for them.

DeepGreenLawn · #6 04-26-2009, 07:43 AM

And after each rain the lawn looks like it has been infested by little ant mounds everywhere... I get a lot of calls about that...

Could you just throw a bucket of night crawlers on any lawn and expect them to start doing their thing automatically? I don't notice any worms in my house/neighborhood... it is only a few years old so I am sure they haven't had a chance to migrate back in especially with me being on a sort of island surrounded by asphalt...

terrapro · #7 04-26-2009, 08:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeepGreenLawn

And after each rain the lawn looks like it has been infested by little ant mounds everywhere... I get a lot of calls about that...

Could you just throw a bucket of night crawlers on any lawn and expect them to start doing their thing automatically? I don't notice any worms in my house/neighborhood... it is only a few years old so I am sure they haven't had a chance to migrate back in especially with me being on a sort of island surrounded by asphalt...

No! An earthworm actually is born from egg and lives in that spot for the rest of its life. It will have anywhere from 6-10 surface holes which it will pop up from and grab debris such as leaves and sticks and bring them down into its burrow to deposit into its compost pile. The compost pile is what it actually eats from after it is broken down by beneficial microbes, sort of like an ant colony if you know anything about them. So if you take an earthworm from its life long home it will not set up a new burrow and eventually die. you can however buy earthworm eggs which of course will work because they will hatch and create their life long home.

treegal1 · #8 04-26-2009, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by terrapro

No! An earthworm actually is born from egg and lives in that spot for the rest of its life. It will have anywhere from 6-10 surface holes which it will pop up from and grab debris such as leaves and sticks and bring them down into its burrow to deposit into its compost pile. The compost pile is what it actually eats from after it is broken down by beneficial microbes, sort of like an ant colony if you know anything about them. So if you take an earthworm from its life long home it will not set up a new burrow and eventually die. you can however buy earthworm eggs which of course will work because they will hatch and create their life long home.

well thats the dumbazz statement of the week. what type of worms are we talking about. red worms? lumbrusius? night crawlers???

whats the point after that statement............

deep most worms can travel a great way in a short time....

treegal1 · #9 04-26-2009, 08:54 PM

and no earth worm casts are not toxic to them, thats a myth......

wow this post when way out the door, come on guys hit the wiki first please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

terrapro · #10 04-26-2009, 09:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by treegal1

well thats the dumbazz statement of the week. what type of worms are we talking about. red worms? lumbrusius? night crawlers???

whats the point after that statement............

deep most worms can travel a great way in a short time....

I can not find ANY information supporting my reply so consider my comment false.

Sorry for possible misinformation. I must have dreamed it.