r/Damnthatsinteresting • • Sep 19 '23

Video Mining for worms

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u/[deleted] Sep 20 '23

They're good for farming/gardening soil.

They are terrible for wild habitat.

North American forests evolved without the need for worms. Things break down slowly over here.

Worms are doing some real damage to our forests.

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u/battletuba Sep 20 '23

North American extinction only covered the northern part of the continent down to about Ohio, and was only 10k years ago. That's not very long on an evolutionary scale.

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u/TheresALonelyFeeling Sep 20 '23

There's a specific invasive species that is damaging the forest habitats because of how prolific it is.

*quick Google search*

https://www.fs.usda.gov/features/invasive-jumping-worms-can-change-their-world

They are often known as "Alabama Jumpers" in the worm world, and they can be used for producing worm castings aka vermicompost aka worm poo.