# The Night Crawler Menace



## mdad

I had no idea night crawlers were not native and are invasive. It sounds like they are actually changing the forest enviroment.
Read this article. If I knew how to post the whole article instead of the link I would.
Is this the right forum for articles like this?

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=invasive-earthworms-denude-forests


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## hunting fool

From the March 2009 Scientific American Magazine | 5 comments
*Invasive Earthworms Denude Forests in U.S. Great Lakes Region*

*Worms, such as the night crawler, eat leaf litter which acts as a rooting medium for new growth*

By Michael Tennesen 


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*More from the Magazine*


<LI class=issue_date done2="68" done0="68">March
2009 Issue <LI done2="69" done0="69">Feature Articles The World's Smallest Radio <LI done2="70" done0="70">Insights Can "Assisted Migration" Save Species from Global Warming? <LI done2="71" done0="71">Updates Updates: Whatever Happened to Drugs from Goats? 
Buy the Digital Edition
Cindy Hale, an ecologist at the University of Minnesota, answers e-mails from a lot of distraught citizens of the Great Lakes region. The residents, it seems, have introduced certain earthworms into their gardens, she says, and now theyve got that nothing grows here syndrome.
Long considered a gardeners friend, earthworms can loosen and aerate the soil. But the story is different in the Great Lakes region. The last Ice Age wiped out native earthworms 10,000 years ago, and ever since the Northeast forest has evolved without the crawlers, Hale says. But now earthworms are back, a product of fishers who toss their worms into the forest, of off-road vehicles and lumber trucks that carry them in the treads of their tires, and of people who bring in mulchand any worms that might be in itfrom other areas.
As invasive creatures, the earth&shy;worms wreak the most havoc with hardwood forests, such as those consisting of maple, basswood, red oak, poplar or birch species. (Conifer-dominated forests seem to experience less dramatic impacts.) According to Peter Groffman, a microbial ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y., northern hardwood forests have relied on thick layers of leaf litter that serve as a rooting medium. The earth&shy;worms, Groffman reports, come into an area with a thick organic mat, and two to five years later that layer is gone.
As a result, some northern hardwood forests that once had a lush understory now have but a single species of native herb and virtually no tree seedlings. Evidently, earthworms change the forest soils from a fungal to a bacterial-dominated system, which speeds up the conversion of leaf detritus to mineral compounds and thereby potentially robs plants of organic nutrients.
Not all foreign earthworms are destructive. Of the 5,000 species around the globe, only about 16 of the European and Asian varieties do the real damage. One of them is the night crawler (Lumbricus terrestris), a popular fish bait that can measure up to 15 to 20 centimeters (six to eight inches). Another is the Alabama jumper (Amynthas agrestis)also known as the snake worm or crazy worman aggressive Asian worm that lives at high densities and can literally jump off the ground or out of a bait can, according to fishing lore. A voracious eater, it does the most harm to the soil.
The presence of the earthworms affects more than just the plants. John Maerz, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Georgia, says that adult salamanders that consume these earthworms are more successful at reproduction but that earthworms are too big for juvenile salamanders to eat, which leads to a net loss in salamander numbers. The amphibians themselves, Maerz notes, are an important prey species for snakes, small mammals, turkeys and a host of forest creatures.
Once established, earthworms are impossible to remove from the environment, Hale says. Concerned about their impact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently awarded Hale and her fellow biologists a three-year, $397,500 grant to study the ecology of the earthworm invasions in cold-temperate hardwood forests. The scientists also hope to answer questions about nutrient and carbon cyclingincluding whether the earthworm activity helps to sequester carbon in the soil or releases it back into the atmosphere. The jury is still out on this issue, Hale explains.
Researchers agree that the best hope is to contain the worms, which spread only five to 10 meters a year on their own. That may mean new regulations governing off-road vehicles, bait disposal by anglers, or equipment hygiene and use in the logging industry. Hale would like to control community mulch piles as well: I remember when I first heard about them, I thought, what a great idea, but think about it. You take leaves, weed seeds and earthworms from all over, bring them in, mix them up and then disperse them back out. Thats a horrible idea.





there you go


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## frenchriver1

All the more reason to use them for walleye bait... 

But seriously, this is likely evidence of a "scientific" study gone bad.


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## sfw1960

frenchriver1 said:


> All the more reason to use them for walleye bait...
> 
> .....


:lol:
That's pretty humorous!
Funny thing is - I bought a package of crawlers last year and after six trips in the boat , I NEVER used one! They died the 'worm pudding' death in the fridge.
Evidently everybody burning their leaves and NOT putting them in the woods has NOTHING to contribute to the 'factor' , blame the worms......

I hope that reel's been killing lots of fish for you French .........


RAS


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## tommy-n

''They died the 'worm pudding' death in the fridge''

thats funny Robert


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## icecathound

did you by chance find this on april first it sounds like a load of crap to me


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## mdad

It is not an April fools joke. I had heard before how night crawlers were non-native. I wonder what effect it is having on morel growth as forest floors switch to a bacterial system vs. a fungal system of compost. I thought it was an interesting article. I like trivia and the idea that night crawlers are invasive is great for drunken arguments around the campfire.


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## frenchriver1

I had read that the castings left by night crawlers, or their excrement, was a good thing...


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## jimbo

i've heard that on some of the northern shoreline,(mich,wis, & minn.), esp. where tammerack tree line a steep bank, crawlers are loosening the soil .then come the rain & it all flushes down the bank. Soil & trees. Changing both land & the water


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## Laketrotter

It sounds like the goverment looking for something to blame instead of air polution and acid rain. I can't believe they are an invasive creature, I remember digging them up fifty years ago for bait.


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## sfw1960

Laketrotter said:


> It sounds like the goverment looking for something to blame instead of air polution and acid rain. I can't believe they are an invasive creature, *I remember digging them up fifty years ago for bait*.


Yeah .... and going with the neighbor kids to fish for "German Brown Trout" another invasive that's going to ruin the world as we know it......

:lol:


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## Ranger Ray

I have to say these forest devouring creatures have eluded me in my lifetime. Now, I have run in to a couple of these creatures:










I find it hard to believe the worms will give these baby's a run for their money. :lol:


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## Bearboy

:rant:Guess what the citizens group in the UP thinks the worm thing is a big problem.........:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:.....And they wonder why they are taken so seriously:yikes:......OH yea, the group was appointed by the  They report their recommendations to the NRC  worms now thats what the MDNR has a bag of!:help:


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## hungry hunter

just setting the stage for future nightcrawler bans


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## Oldgrandman

:lol: Some of you guys.....you're killin me!



> ''They died the 'worm pudding' death in the fridge''


Robert, you should consider writing as a job should you ever become unemployed :lol:


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## sfw1960

Oldgrandman said:


> :lol: Some of you guys.....you're killin me!
> 
> 
> 
> Robert, you should consider writing as a job should you ever become unemployed :lol:


Hell , I'd love to Mark - but with competition like Whit1 & STEINFISHSKI - I haven't got a chance !!


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## Oldgrandman

sfw1960 said:


> Hell , I'd love to Mark - but with competition like Whit1 & STEINFISHSKI - I haven't got a chance !!


I was thinking more like commercials or sitcoms.....


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## sfw1960

Oldgrandman said:


> I was thinking more like commercials or sitcoms.....


Shouldn't you be out stalking fungi???
:16suspect :16suspect :evilsmile :lol:


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## michi1

When you think about , there is NO Invasive species , just man-made governmental boundaries. After all there's just the planet Earth and its inhabitants.

Well maybe NOT the N R C , they might not be from around here. :evilsmile


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## Jasper302

Crazy.


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