Hi,
A new gardener here. I built a large raised bed to grow veggies. It's 20 ft long by 4 ft wide by 30 in tall. You can see a picture of it here before it's completely filled in.
download/file.php?id=29415&mode=view
The top two thirds is mostly cow manure and soil scrapped from a local rancher's cow feeding pens. To help in its decomposition I bought some red wigglers from eBay and added them to the raised bed. The worms are doing great - multiplying and making this a great raised bed soil. Worms are now in every small scoop of that soil.
Yesterday, about 30 ft away from the raised bed I moved some lumber I had stacked there temporarily a few months ago.
Surprise - I found red wigglers burrowing into the wood that was sitting on the ground. Thirty feet away from the raised bed, across hot, dry, gravely soil, these "surface feeding" worms traveled after digging more than 30 inches down through the raised bed soil. We've only had two days of rain since I stacked that lumber there a few months ago. Apparently these worms are much more hardy than given credit for.
Have I caused some type of ecological disaster by introducing these worms to my environment?
My house was built in 1929 and its all wood. And the outside wood walls come down into the ground. My house is only 20 ft from the raised bed and I fear what these worms might do to these 100 year old wood walls or house foundation. Is there any way to control these worms?
Unfortunately too late I found this article stating the tiger worm or red wiggler Eisenia fetida "can cause mass damage". Had I known that, I would not have used them. Other articles have mislead me into believing red wigglers are surface feeders only, and will not survive in a garden unless given a constant source of organic matter to eat, and cannot stand prolonged freezing winter weather (it got as low as 0*F this past winter and mid-June was the last of our freezing weather).
https://wildyards.com/bad-worms-in-garden-soil/
Is there any way to control wild red wiggler worms?
How does one insure a house against worm damage?
All comments welcomed and appreciated.
Thank you.
-
applestar
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Worms, red wrigglers included, are very active when there have been a lot of rain and temps are in 50’s to 60’s.
They won’t stay where it’s dry, and when it’s hot and dry, they delve deeper, seeking cooler and moist environment.
They also start migrating in the fall when around 40’s, on their way deeper to escape the coming freeze ….
In spring, they start emerging after the final thaw when the ground temp is again up to 40’s and higher.
I think wigglers might occupy the damp space between bark and wood in rounds of trunk and big branches, or rotting damp wood, but unless structural lumber has already been damaged and made damp/soft by termites etc, I’m not sure they can burrow into solid timber….?
It’s true wigglers can become invasive in areas north of the glacier line…. But where there are natural predators, a healthy and biodiverse soil food web and wild organisms like soil predators, amphibians, reptiles, moles, birds and reptiles, etc. should establish in competition and control. I have to intentionally search out and eliminate critters like centipedes and ground beetles, etc. when trying to collect worms for my vermicompost bin and container plant pots….
They won’t stay where it’s dry, and when it’s hot and dry, they delve deeper, seeking cooler and moist environment.
They also start migrating in the fall when around 40’s, on their way deeper to escape the coming freeze ….
In spring, they start emerging after the final thaw when the ground temp is again up to 40’s and higher.
I think wigglers might occupy the damp space between bark and wood in rounds of trunk and big branches, or rotting damp wood, but unless structural lumber has already been damaged and made damp/soft by termites etc, I’m not sure they can burrow into solid timber….?
It’s true wigglers can become invasive in areas north of the glacier line…. But where there are natural predators, a healthy and biodiverse soil food web and wild organisms like soil predators, amphibians, reptiles, moles, birds and reptiles, etc. should establish in competition and control. I have to intentionally search out and eliminate critters like centipedes and ground beetles, etc. when trying to collect worms for my vermicompost bin and container plant pots….
Oh no! I hope the worm problem gets resolved. Good luck!
Wikipedia says they thrive in compost - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenia_fetida
Wikipedia says they thrive in compost - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenia_fetida