Not to beat this dead horse into the ground, but I'm still so confused...

Here's my story. At home, I'm an ardent fan of the worm, with an outdoor worm bed whose denizens make short shrift of my kitchen scraps plus manure plus autumn leaves, and who produce the gorgeous vermicompost for my home veg/flower garden. I love a worm.

At work, I'm a gardener at a public garden in NJ. I had an idea to use the copious amount of horse manure produced by our friendly horses at the stable to set up outdoor vermicomposting beds, so that we'd get lovely vermicompost for our garden. We have a large wooded area that is not a part of the garden and I thought that this would be a good area since there's plenty of space and it's shady. My manager, however, is concerned about the risk of the worms/cocoons getting into the surrounding woodlands and "negatively impacting" the ecology. The more I read about the Minnesota situation, etc., the more I regrettfully am beginning to believe he is correct. Additionally, the garden is a naturalistic woodland garden. So I'm wondering if the resulting vermicompost might have too much in the way of live worms/cocoons and those might also have a negative effect on the wildflowers that grow there, and the shade-loving plants we cultivate.

Can I get your opinions? Thanks.

Bucky,

I don't have an answer for you, but what is the Minnesota situation? could you explain or post a link to what you are referring to?

Thanks,

Larry

Larry,

if you go to the home page and search for "duff", you'll find a number of articles about the loss of leaf litter on the forest floors in Minnesota and the resulting loss of wildflowers, etc., due to non-native earthworms.

And here's another link I found in my researches. But I don't know if it applies to NJ woodland.

http://www.nrri.umn.edu/worms/forest/index.html

Thanks Bucky...That's interesting. Never realized that there was a down side to earthworms. Sounds like the main issue is with night crawlers.

Larry

I know, it's not clear in any of the articles I've read if eisenia foetida will cause a problem. That's why I'm hoping somebody expert could respond.

For now, I've got the project on hold as I don't want to be responsible for a tragic worm population explosion in the NJ woodlands.

I am no way an expert about this or even looked at many studies about it. I do know that because of not letting fire clean the forest we have already changed the ecosystem of our forest. Our forest are now covered with undergrowth that is not natural.Maybe the worm is doing what fire used to do. Maybe it is a good thing.So I think any study that does not take this in to account is only half the study. I could be all wrong here but it is something to consider.

Digger

P.S. We do know that are forests are not healthy due to lack of fire. Even the government knows this.