Be careful about giving anyone your plants. The soil they’re in could contain jumping worms. University of Illinois Extension Horticulture Educator Richard Hentschel says unlike the earthworms gardens should have around here, jumping worms are bad for the soil.
They’re just eggs now. But by late summer or fall, they grow to more than six inches long and consume the organic matter in the soil without leaving anything good behind. Hentschel is asking people who find such worms to throw them in the garbage. He says they’ll die there and can’t lay any more eggs in the soil.
Hentschel says gardeners who are always adding organic matter to their soil may not have much trouble with the worms. But they can ruin the environment for forest plants which don’t get such replenishment.
Jumping Worm picture from University of Illinois
Jumping worm identifier image from University of Illinois
University of Illinois jumping worm presence map, April 2021. Presence in the county doesn’t necessarily mean the worms are everywhere in the county. But gardeners should be careful.