Re: worms (wasDrought survivors)



Gemcopley@cs.com wrote:

>  we were discussing worms, the garden sort. One of the
> group is cultivating them as they are quite a rarity here. [She cannot
> remember the Latin names : )  ] but says there are 2 varieties,both
> Australian]

> As one of the comments made that evening was that
> gardeners have done more to destroy the environment than commercial farmers,
> I wonder whether introducing these foreign worms is to be recommended ? Is
> there a worm expert out there please,to help answer these
> peripheral-to-Medit-gardening questions?

I'm not a worm expert, but I am aware of a minor ecological disaster in the
northern U.S., where non-native worms have been spreading like wildfire,
introduced accidentally by fishermen who use them as bait.  Whatever non-native
worm it was that got introduced, it efficiently eats all of the forest leaf
litter that would otherwise decompose gradually over years, totally changing the
forest floor habitat, and eliminating the the native species that were adapted to
the natural habitat.  There seems to be no way at present, of eliminating the
worm except massive poisoning, which would also kill off all the other
invertebrates.

So caution is appropriate.  Introduction of foreign animal species is probably
far more problematic than the introduction of plants - the animals move around,
and can hide.  At least with plants, if you want to eliminate them, you can at
least find them.

Richard Starkeson
Berkeley, California
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