On 4/15/2016 11:49 AM, Brooklyn1 wrote:
songbird wrote:
J. Clarke wrote:
songbird wrote:

worms are actually not good for them because they eat the
leaves and thus they lose their protection.

What kind of worms eat leaves? Do you mean caterpillars?

any of the composting worms (red wrigglers, belgian night
crawlers, night crawlers, etc.) will break down leaves. many
northern forests are not home to worms unless they are brought
in by fisherfolks or some other means.

Earthworms don't eat leaves, certainly not living plant leaves.
Earthworms eat and subsist on the microbes that compost leaves and
other organic matter. Earthworms injest the microbe laden soil and
compost, digest the microbes and eject the soil and compost as
castings... earthworms do no composting of leaves. Earthworms
congregate near fallen leaves because the leaves attract microbes, but
they do not eat the leaves. Earthworms exist very well in northern
forests, they burrow down below the frost line, same as they burrow
deep on hot summer days. Earthworms exist most everywhere on the
planet except near the North Pole where the soil doesn't thaw. There
are worms that live in the ground beneath bodies of water that do the
same. I don't know why so many believe that earthworms compost
organic matter, they do not, I suppose they can't make the leap that
organic matter attracts microbes... that's why fisherman sprinkle
cereal on the ground in the late afternoon and cover it with cardboard
to attract nightcrawlers. Microbes multiply rapidly and are attracted
to cereal, in turn the microbes attract nightcrawlers. Just before
dawn the fisherman go out with flashlights, lift the cardboard and
quickly harvest plenty of live bait for a day's fishing. The
nightcrawlers are not eating the cereal, they are injesting the
proximal soil that's loaded with microbes that are attracted to the
cereal.


Sheldon, you're full of shit as usual. The common earthworm is not
native to the US, it was introduced by settlers. Researchers have
found that it degrades the forest ground cover by rapidly decomposing
the leaf mulch. As a result, there is an effort to protect the (few)
forested regions in NA that are not infested with earthworms by
reminding people not to introduce them.

Mulch is good. Compost is good. Earthworms are a major factor in the
rapid decomposition of both. It should be obvious that earthworms are
not environmentally beneficial, contrary to popular misconception.
Imagine the advantages of soils where organic matter has a chance to
persist and only slowly decompose over several seasons, instead of
several months. Think how much richer and more productive such soils
would be - and how much less labor we'd have if we only had to amend
our soils occasionally, instead of frequently.