Pak, the precautionary principle would suggest not to take new organisms into an ecosystem unless you have a very good reason.
Well yeah Pebble, I take that as a "True-ism". Especially after watching the damage that occurred with invasive species in the SF Bay area of California. However my region has had earthworms, it evolved with them, so I am confused as to the true intention of my regions master gardener. Mouse, thank you.. I started reading.
I'm still getting my head around the concept that an earthworm can be aggressive. "Go ahead punk, make my day"?
Every single one of these is from the Great Lakes region of the Americas, and evolved without worms due to the glacier that only melted 10,000 years ago +/- a few months or days. In some instances, the area checked was clear cut of all old growth trees previously. I am starting to believe this is very regional, or at most, localized to certain regions world wide where there was glaciers previously that prevented the evolution of earthworms in a given area. As such, I believe the main article is more hype to increase use of chemicals. However, this does not mean a person should take short cuts and not observe the property on which they work on properly.
I would rather drink the same while holding a red wiggler, asking it why it is so aggressive. The worm, not the tequila.
You are brilliantly right - why didn't I see that before! After a few tequilas the worm will give the answer and probably explain the secrets of the universe as well. It's just a pity the tequila always erases your memory of it the next day.
I had an interesting thought... The last ice age was roughly 10,000 years ago right? That is nowhere long enough for evolutionary processes to take any major effect. These trees live for hundreds of years, let's say, 330 years. That means that these forests have lived without earthworms for roughly 40-50 generations. Biologists are so quick to invoke the theory of evolution because they've been taught to think about nothing else. There has probably been adaptation by life to fill the niche left by the absence of worms but that is all. The "steady state" of the environment in these regions in geological time is actually much, much warmer and almost certainly had earthworms in the biosphere. This means that the current situation we observe today is an anomaly and the absence of worms from the soil is actually an unnatural condition.
Add to that humans clear cutting the area (by & large) for housing & Europe for 400 years & then trying to come up with a scientific reason for problems occurring.
I'm glad eisenia fetida is native to Europe. Still, this doesn't really mean that people in these regions shouldn't use composting worms. If they are actually a serious problem, one could lengthen the process to include a hatching period for eggs after adult worm removal. This would greatly extend the time needed to harvest and use the vermicompost, but could possibly remove most of the worms from the end product.