The Truth About the Invasive Jumping Worms That Are Now Across the U.S.
Murder hornets made headlines in 2020 for their scary ability to behead bees (and their generally terrifying name). Now, there’s a new creepy creature to add to our ever-growing list of things to worry about: invasive jumping worms.
These worms, also known as amynthas agrestis or Asian jumping worms, are suddenly making headlines after they’ve been spotted across the country. The California Department of Food & Agriculture (CDFA) notes in a report that these worms were introduced to the U.S. through landscaped plants and have now spread.
But the CDFA report also included this spine-tingling description of the worms: “These earthworms are extremely active, aggressive, and have voracious appetites. True to their name, they jump—known to jump off the ground or out of a bait can—and thrash immediately when handled, behaving more like a threatened snake than a worm, sometimes even breaking and shedding their tail when caught.”
The United States Department of Agriculture says in a new blog post that scientists are “worried” about the spread of these worms.
Never heard of jumping worms before? That’s all about to change. Here’s what you need to know about these creepy crawlies that can get some major air.
What states are jumping worms in?
There doesn’t seem to be a nationwide tracking system for these worms. However, the CDFA report says that invasive jumping worms have been spotted in the following states:
Alabama
Connecticut
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Missouri
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Vermont
Virginia
West Virginia
Wisconsin
New Hampshire’s Valley News just reported that plant sales in several parts of the state have been canceled because of the Asian jumping worm.
Are jumping worms harmful? Are they invasive?
Asian jumping worms are native to eastern Asian, making them an invasive species in the U.S., says Howard Russell, M.S., an entomologist at Michigan State University.
While Asian jumping worms’ ability to leap into the air is freaky, they won’t actually harm people, says Ben Hottel, technical services manager at Orkin. “They won’t bite you,” he adds. They just may give you a good scare if they happen to leap in your direction.
What do jumping worms look like?
These worms look like ordinary worms, although they’re pretty large. They can grow up to eight inches long and usually have a white or grey band known as clitellum around a dark body, according to the CDFA report.
Why are jumping worms a concern?
There’s a reason why so many people are concerned about these worms (you know...aside from the fact that they can jump): They can harm ecosystems. “They devour organic material in soil, leaf litter, and mulch and poop out grainy, hard little pellets that offer very little to the ecosystem,” Russell says. “The pellets or castings do not breakdown easily, which leads to poor soil structure and less available organic material for plants.”
The worms also breed in large numbers and produce cocoons at the surface of the soil. “They reproduce rapidly,” says Gideon Alake, Ph.D., an entomology and nematology department postdoctoral associate at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. They can also “displace the local earthworm populations,” he adds.
The CDFA says that Asian jumping worms pose a “serious threat” to forests and can also be problematic in commercial nurseries. They can get into potted plants and then be distributed to residential and commercial gardens and parks, where they’ll spread, the CDFA says.
“The worms can deplete thick layers of leaf litter that serve as rooting media thereby, disrupting the natural decomposition of leaf litter on forest floors and turning the soil into grainy, dry worm castings that cannot support understory forest plants,” the CDFA report says. “They can alter forest soils from a fungal to a bacterial-dominated system which speeds up the conversion of leaf debris to mineral compounds thereby robbing plants of organic nutrients.”
The worms “end up changing nutrients in the soil that can lead to the loss of native plants,” Hottel says. That could potentially have an impact on everything from your allergies—certain weeds like ragweed may be able to thrive better in soil that’s been altered by jumping worms—to tick populations, he says. “It’s amazing that these small little worms can do so much,” Hottel adds.
The report also includes this note: “Once they are established, they are impossible to eradicate.” Meaning, if you get jumping worms on your property, you’re probably stuck with them.
What’s the difference between earthworms and jumping worms?
There are a few differences between earthworms and jumping worms, and some are more obvious to people who aren’t worm experts than others.
“Jumping worms are very active and actually jump to escape when handled,” Russell says. “They differ morphologically from other earthworms by their clitellum (that light-colored band) completely encircling the body and which is flush with the rest of the body). In other earthworms, the clitellum is [slightly] raised off the body and it does not completely encircle the body.”
Jumping worms are not slimy like earthworms are, Russell says. They also “move snake-like and they tend to occur in large numbers,” Russell says.
What to do if you find a jumping warm
The best way to avoid dealing with jumping worms is to try to keep them from landing on your property in the first place, says John Bell III, a board-certified entomologist with Western Exterminator. “Inspect thoroughly soils, potted plants, gardening equipment, and clothing for this pest prior to bringing it to a location,” he says. And, if you happen to spot a jumping worm, you don’t want to just toss it into the soil.
While it might be hard to hear, experts have a hard truth about how to deal with one if you find it. “Live worms should be placed into a plastic bag and sealed, allowed to be left in the sun for a few hours, and then disposed of in the trash once dead,” Bell says.
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