Here's the scoop on worm poop

Every now and then, the rugs in my house look like this:

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That’s because my yard is often covered with piles of this:

I don’t really LIKE having a messy home and I sure wish I could learn to wipe my feet a little better before I come inside. But I’m definitely not complaining. As an eco-friendly gardener, I know that having piles of worm poop in my yard is a very good thing.

Earthworms help aerate the soil by crawling around creating little tunnels and passageways. And the whole time, they are just eating and pooping, eating and pooping. Aristotle called worms the "intestines of the soil" for their role of converting organic matter to fertilizer. Most of that pooping occurs underground, but during times of extreme moisture, the worms migrate towards the surface and leave their poop, also called castings, in little piles around your lawn.

The scoop on worm poop is that it is full of nutrients and extremely beneficial to your lawn and plants. Worm castings contain 0.86 percent nitrogen, 0.37 percent phosphorous and 0.25 percent potassium. Other nutrients include 2.3 percent calcium and 0.72 percent iron. The castings provide natural nutrients, often eliminating the need for harmful synthetic fertilizer products. The healthy lawn will then attract more earthworms, which will further improve soil aeration and increase the penetration of rainwater.

Earthworms help in breaking down thatch, increasing decomposition and creating usable nitrogen in the soil. In fact, five or more earthworms per square foot of soil provides the lawn with 25% of its seasonal nitrogen requirements.

Some people, however, don’t see the value in worm poop. They find these tiny piles of poop unsightly, both outside their home and when tracked inside. Weak thin lawns, which have been mowed too low, will certainly make these piles more evident.  

Dealing with Worm Poop

• Rake or sweep castings into the lawn when they are dry. You can also sweep up castings and add them to your compost pile or potting soil mixture.
• Don't overwater. Earthworms will stay near the surface if it's continuously moist.
• Mow high and keep the lawn healthy to hide the poop piles and minimize the unsightliness.
• Some sources recommend using a roller to press down the casts but over time, this can cause compaction of the soil.
• Keep castings outside where they can do some good. Put doormats outside all of your doors and use them!
• If you can’t remember to do that, sweep up worm castings that make it into your home with a hand held vacuum or broom and dump them in your potting mix! (That may sound silly, but worm castings sell for about $3.00 a pound and provide many valuable nutrients to your plants.)

Here are some more posts about the value of earthworms:

Earthworms: Wriggling Wonders of the Garden

Recycled Worm Info

Can earthworms predict earthquakes?

Since "green gardeners", with healthy, nutritious soil, often have more earthworms, I wanted to post a question. Have you seen more earthworms than usual crawling around lately?

Earthquakes emerging to the surface are supposed to be a tell-tale sign that an earthquake (or a flood) might be on the way. At least, that's what some people think.

Dr. Ikeya at Osaka University has been studying earthworms and earthquakes. Ikeya’s laboratory experiments were conducted to see if exposure to an electrical field or electromagnetic pulses could elicit animal behavior similar to what has been reported prior to earthquakes. The results: fish showed panic reactions, and earthworms moved out of the soil and swarmed when current was applied.

When asked why he decided to study the relationship between earthworms and earthquakes, Ikeya said:

The Kobe earthquake in 1995. I live 30 km from the epicenter and thought it strange that many earthworms dug themselves up in my small garden. At the time, I did not know the legend that a number of emerging earthworms is a sign of a large earthquake. Many people noticed this, including my neighbors.

(Source)

What about your pets or other critters? There are many theories that animals are more in tune with Mother Nature than humans. It's just something interesting to think about.

Here are some excerpts from an article on a U.S. Department of the Interior Website:

Rats, weasels, snakes, and centipedes reportedly left their homes and headed for safety several days befor a destructive earthquake. Anectdotal evidence abounds of animals, fish, birds, reptiles, and insects exhibiting strange behavior anywhere from weeks to seconds before an earthquake. However, consistent and reliable behavior prior to seismic events, and a mechanism explaining how it could work, still eludes us. Most, but not all, scientists pursuing this mystery are in China or Japan. 

We can easily explain the cause of unusual animal behavior seconds before humans feel an earthquake. Very few humans notice the smaller P wave that travels the fastest from the earthquake source and arrives before the larger S wave. But many animals with more keen senses are able to feel the P wave seconds before the S wave arrives. As for sensing an impending earthquake days or weeks before it occurs, that's a different story. 

A recent popular theory purports that there is a correlation between Lost Pet ads in the San Jose Mercury News and the dates of earthquakes in the San Francisco Bay area. A thorough statistical analysis of this theory, published in California Geology in 1988, concludes that there is no such correlation, however.

(Source)

So what did you notice? Were your pets or critters acting strange before the quake?

Recycled Worm Info

I'm weeding through a stack of old magazines at home and I keep finding great information that is worth sharing.

If you read my previous article on earthworms, you know that I think that earthworms are some of a green gardener's best friends.

Here are some excerpts from an article called Worms' Work, by Amy Stewart in the April/May 2004 issue of Organic Gardening Magazine.
 

Worms….change the soils composition, increase its capacity to absorb and hold water, and bring about an increase in nutrients and beneficial microbes. You could say they move the earth.

A happy Home

Can you introduce worms into your garden? yes, but it's better to increase the worm population already present. 

* Sweeten the soil. Worms prefer a neutral pH of about 7. If a test shows that your soil is very acidic, add bonemeal, limestone, or crushed oyster shell to raise the pH. 

* Add a layer of organic mulch. Worms thrive under manure, grass clippings, dead leaves, and compost. 

* Avoid disturbing the soil. Tilling and double-digging damage earthworms. Layer organic matter on the soil's surface instead. 

* Worms love clover. Consider planting it as a cover crop in winter and turning it under in spring.

* If you must add worms to your soil, find a spot where they're abundant, dig up chunks of soil with worms, and carefully place the chunks in a hole you've dug for them.

For more information about earthworms, see my previous post: Earthworms - Wriggling Wonders of the Garden

More about worms - fishing for answers

I recently wrote a post about the wonders of earthworms in a garden.

While working on the post, I was going to mention how I sometimes get earthworms for my garden.

Every now and then if I accompany my husband to a bait shop, I buy a small bucket of worms and take them home and drop them in my soil. I’ve been told that isn’t really a good idea and that they will die there. But since they would have died as bait on the end of some fisherman’s line, I figured dying in a pile of nice moist compost in my yard might be just as acceptable an end for these “sacred” creatures as being strung on a hook and chomped in half by a hungry fish.

But in my continuing effort to learn the correct “environmentally friendly” way of doing things, I wanted to check with a "worm expert" before I recommended this method. What I found out was that the harm that I was doing might not be to the worms, themselves, but to the environment because I was introducing a non-native species.

I contacted Tami S. Ransom, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Virginia who has done some research on introduced species.

Here is what she said.

Hi Betsy. I saw that you had already posted your blog about adding earthworms to gardens. The only thing I wanted to bring to your attention is that all of the earthworms that you buy as bait or for compost piles are invasive earthworms. In urbanized areas, such as the target area for your blog, invasive earthworms are already well-established. Pretty much any earthworm that you find in your garden is a non-native earthworm. And, it is true that these non-native earthworms can be beneficial for gardens.  

However, if you post a follow up to your original post, you should caution your readers that if they decide to purchase earthworms for their gardens, they should avoid purchasing "Alabama jumpers". These earthworms in the genus Amynthas have been recently introduced from Asia. Because they are recent invaders, data about their effects is still scarce. However, it does appear that they can damage forest ecosystems. When introduced here in the South, they seem to thrive. I've seen riparian areas here in Charlottesville where it appears they are denuding areas of leaf litter and reducing the understory plant community. 

Here's a link to a recent story about these Asian earthworms: 

http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/110507/news_20071105041.shtml 

As I said, in urban areas, it's probably not too big of a deal to put purchased worms in gardens (as long as they aren't those Asian ones!) The European invasives are already here to stay. All the compost worms that people buy are also invasives. But, if you are trying to be eco-conscious, then making your already established worms happy is probably the best way to go :)

Thank you Tami. As always, I appreciate all the wonderful scientists and scholars who are willing to help us all learn the right way to "take care of our share" of the planet!

Earthworms - Wriggling Wonders of the Garden

Earthworms are the intestines of the soil. – Aristotle

One of the most memorable questions that I ever received from a fellow gardener was from the gentleman who called me with his earthworm problem. “What can I do to get rid of all of these awful earthworms,” he said. “They’re all over the place.”

Although most gardeners would love to see slimy, wriggling earthworms, rolling around in their soil, this gentleman saw them only as a nuisance. Such is the case with many garden critters, which are shunned at first sight and sometimes even eradicated from a yard long before the gardener takes the time to learn their bountiful benefits.

There is no doubt that earthworms are slimy little critters. Nevertheless, if you have earthworms in your yard, you should feel lucky. If you could create a miniature little robot that could aerate your soil by creating passageways for air and water, all the while adding valuable nutrients to the soil, wouldn’t you do it? Too late. Nature has already created this creature and we have named him “earthworm”.

Like many creature’s, an earthworm’s primary activity is eating and eliminating what it eats. But in the case of the earthworm, the old adage of “garbage in, garbage out” isn’t very accurate. With earthworms, what they eliminate, called castings, are pure gold to your garden soil.

You don’t have to go to the extent of Cleopatra who supposedly considered earthworms so indispensable to the agricultural economy of ancient Egypt that she declared them sacred, subjecting exporters to the death penalty. But you should definitely roll out the red carpet for these creatures by giving them what they like – a nice layer of damp fallen leaves or other organic matter.

In my continuing effort to learn more about “environmentally friendly” landscaping, I decided to see what else I could find out about earthworms.

Environmental benefits of earthworms

• Earthworm poop peps up your plants. Earthworms eat microorganisms in the soil. As the organic matter passes through their system, it is fragmented and inoculated with other microorganisms. The resulting feces or casts contain nutrients and organic matter that is more readily taken up by plants.
• Earthworms help stir things up! A large proportion of soil passes through the guts of earthworms, and they can actually turn over the top six inches of soil….in about ten to twenty years. But in the process of moving dirt around, they can bring essential nutrients back to the top layers of the soil that had leached down.
• Earthworms help prevent erosion. Earthworms make soil more porous as they move through it. Some species make permanent burrows deep into the soil. These burrows can remain long after the worm has died, and can be a major conduit for soil drainage, particularly under heavy rainfall. At the same time, the burrows minimize surface water erosion.
• Earthworms help soil retain moisture. By fragmenting organic matter, and increasing soil porosity, earthworms can significantly increase the water-holding capacity of soils.
• Earthworms help prevent water pollution. By allowing more water to seep into the soil, earthworms help prevent pollution by minimizing runoff.
• Earthworms provide channels for root growth. The channels made by deep-burrowing earthworms are lined with readily available nutrients and make it easier for roots to penetrate deep into the soil.
• Earthworms help feed local wildlife. Earthworms are a favorite food of many bird species and other friendly garden predators such as toads and turtles.

If you see earthworms in your yard, then it is a good sign that you have a somewhat “healthy” garden. Earthworm populations tend to increase in areas with richer organic matter levels and decrease with soil disturbances, such as tillage and potentially harmful chemicals. If you would like to attract MORE earthworms, here are a few tips:

1. Avoid using chemicals. Pesticides are one of the biggest threats to earthworms today. Many common pesticides, even "organic" pesticides, kill earthworms, some with mortality rates as high as 100%. Chemicals that are used to kill Japanese beetle grubs, for example, also kill earthworms. Some chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and fungicides can also kill earthworms.
2. Avoid unnecessary cultivation. Studies have found a direct correlation between the frequency of cultivation and the number and size of earthworms: the more frequently the ground is cultivated, the fewer and smaller the worms. When possible, cultivate beds by hand or with a digging fork. Hand cultivation has a significantly lower mortality rate for earthworms than machine cultivation.
3. Add compost and other organic matter to your soil. If you make your own compost, you may see earthworms in your compost pile. Spreading a thick layer of finished compost on new garden beds, or digging it in when you plant, is a great way to improve your soil, produce healthier plants, and attract worms, all at the same time. If you don’t have a compost pile, you can feed the worms by adding certain food scraps such as vegetable peelings and coffee grounds directly to your garden either in shallow holes or under layers of mulch.
4. Add mulch. Worms are easily killed by surprise frosts on unprotected soil in spring and fall. Mulch provides an insulating blanket that can help protect them from the cold. It also helps keep soil cool and moist in the summertime when worms are typically driven deep underground to hide from warm temperatures and dry soils. Organic mulches such as straw and shredded leaves are also favorite worm foods.

*Many of the facts for this article were found from this source: The Living Soil: Earthworms, NRCS website