Cotton FarmersĮarthworms such as nightcrawlers came to the region later, arriving along with colonists from Europe. Short Wave A Pesky Rumble: Pink Bollworms Vs. They're also known as snake worms, because of the vigorous way they move. In New Jersey, they're called Jersey wrigglers, Görres says. In the South, they're sometimes called Alabama jumpers or Georgia jumpers - and they've often sold as a lively form of fish bait. When those plants aren't abundant, Görres says, deer "will start browsing on other things, such as saplings of trees, including maples."ĭelivering what he cautions is a speculative forecast, Görres says that within the next 50 to 100 years, "there'll be less and less maple syrup." They've been crawling among us for decadesĪ crazy worm by any other name, it turns out, would cause just as many problems.
When the worms go through forests' duff layer, they also take away a crucial germination medium for small plants that usually supply food for deer. In Vermont, Görres says that if the earthworms invade more forests there and across the border in Canada, "there's going to be a lot less regeneration of maple trees - of sugar maple in particular."
National Bigleaf Maple Syrup Flows As Profits Drip From Once-Maligned Northwest Tree "Without that protective leaf litter and duff layer, they become very stressed, and they're more susceptible to insects and diseases, and they're less likely to grow very fast," he said. "They tend to really impact maple trees," he said, particularly because those trees tend to have shallow roots. What about my syrup?Ĭrazy worms' impact on maple syrup could be "severe," Fish told Maine Public Radio. And because they mature in just 60 days, two groups of offspring can hatch in a single season.Ī number of states, including Maine and New York, have banned crazy worms outright. They can reproduce asexually, through parthenogenesis. The Asian worms also have biological advantages. In these images showing two stands of sugar maple trees, the one on the left has not been invaded by Asian crazy worms, and the one on the right has. But in the context of the northern forest, they are relative newcomers that have the potential to have huge effects." "I call earthworm invasions 'socially cryptic,' " Görres tells NPR, "because folks think of earthworms as the good guys - and maybe they are in certain ecosystems. "The street cred that they have is hiding the invasion," Josef Görres, a soil scientist at the University of Vermont, says of the worms. But in the Northeast, experts say invasive "crazy worms" from Asia are creating havoc in forests - and they say the unusual worms are a danger to animals and plants, and especially to sugar maple trees. Josef Görres/Plant and Soil Science Department University of VermontĮarthworms are often seen as a welcome presence in gardens, and even on fishing hooks. The worms can thrash around so violently that they can jump out of a person's hand. Crazy worms - an invasive species from Asia - pose a threat to forests, scientists say.
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