worms.htm

Treasure your
worms worms
worms
worms
worms worms
worms
worms
worms
worms
give your worms a home

You can imagine this being a worm's eye view of New Year's Eve in your garden.
They'll eat the corks from their champagne bottles.

You'll never even see the confetti.

Maybe just a party hat or two. Small hats. worms at New Year's Eve party

You can never have too many worms...

Worms for your compost heap outside...
Worms for your vermicomposting box in the basement...
Worms for your fishing trip...
Worms for trade and barter...
Worms to help make your garden's black gold...

Know your worms. Nurture your worms. Protect your soil and worms with mulch. Learn everything you can about worms. Red wrigglers for the compost heap. Gray earthworms for the garden beds. Georgia Jumpers. Purple Canadians. Nightcrawlers. And watch out for the dreaded Artioposthia triangulata. If you find one, call your local Extension Agent immediately. Worms create great soil. They don't deplete the soil. Their castings are known as black gold. It's been estimated that in an acre of organic farmland, 50 tons of soil are digested and transformed by worms per year. In contrast, a 7000-acre field of corn treated with chemical fertilizers and pesticides was found to not have any worms in it at all.

Worm castings are the perfect pH for plants. Worms burrow deep and bring up trace minerals. We need more information about worms and their role in the eco-system.

A grandmother in Denmark ordered 250 worms and cut them all in half, thinking she'd get 500 worms for her garden. Actually she ended up with 250 worms. The head end eventually grows a new tail, but the tail end just stays as it is. And yes, a worm has a brain.

Doing some research? Here's a good book to find at the library: Secrets of the Soil by Peter Tompkins & Christopher Bird. Does anyone know if the Smithsonian Museum still has its Worm Division? worm bin in garage

My worms once lived in this long narrow wooden bin in the garage.

Now they live in a Can-O-Worms. I put it in the basement for the winter... much warmer there than out on the deck. They seem to love living in this fancy worm condo.

The cold frame is made from an old window, and it gets morning sun. It is covered with a couple pieces of thick plexiglas in the winter.

suzaplants@earthlink.net

Artioposthia triangulata

The following article is reproduced here in its entirety with permission from THE AVANT GARDENER.

According to THE AVANT GARDENER, THE UNIQUE HORTICULTURAL NEWS SERVICE, June 1995, Vol. 27, No. 8, (HORTICULTURAL DATA PROCESSORS, Box 489, New York, NY, 10028):
"Invasion of the Earthworm Eater: The US has been invaded many times--not militarily, but by natural enemies. The gypsy moth, Dutch Elm Disease, and kudzu are three of the most well known foreign invaders who have wreaked horticultural and agricultural havoc, and there have been many more. Now there is need for vigilance against a really terrible threat to our gardens, farms and landscape. Originating in New Zealand, it has already invaded the British Isles with devastating impact. It is a flatworm which attacks the more important inhabitant of good soils, the earthworm. Artioposthia triangulata can dissolve an earthworm with digestive enzymes and consume it totally. In its native New Zealand, this flatworm is not a pest because it is held in check by the warm and dry climate (it can't live at temperatures above 68 degrees F). But when it arrived in the British Isles, probably in soil around imported plants, it spread rapidly in the cool and damp soils of Ireland and Scotland.	The Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture estimates its country's agricultural production will fall at least one-third as its native earthworms are destroyed by the pest. The slimy 6 inch flat, cream-speckled dark brown worm has now spread into England, and gardeners are being cautioned to immediately destroy the worm and its shiny black currant-like eggs and report its presence to the Ministry of Agriculture. In an article reprinted from the NEW ZEALAND GARDENER in the Summer of 1995 PACIFIC HORTICULTURE (Box 485, Berkeley, CA 94701), Diana Anthony reports that British scientists are calling the flatworm 'an ecological disaster.' The earthworm enriches, aerates and drains the soil, and its loss greatly harms soil quality and also reduces populations of birds and animals dependent on earthworms for food. A massive study is under way to learn about the biology of the flatworm and to find a disease specific to this slimy monster."

Artioposthia triangulata

The following article is reproduced here in its entirety with permission from THE AVANT GARDENER.