Here's a pretty good article on earthworms. I've got mixed emotions about worms. I understand about the forest ecosystem but, OTOH, it's hard to undo decades of indocrination that earthworms equal healthy soil & are something beneficial. I first heart about earthworms being non-native & the problems they can create in our forests during my master gardener's training ten year ago. /tricia Here is a link that might be useful: Earthworms

Sammy, Thanks. The number of hoppers has creeped me out this year. When I walk through the grass on the side of the barn, all I hear is "plink, plink, plunk" as grasshoppers rise from the grass in unison to avoid being stepped on and hit the side of the metal barn. Usually they peak in July and then their numbers start dropping, but this summer, since we were very dry all spring and didn't have good rainfall until June and July, we went into summer with a huge population, and then every time it rained, we got a new hatch of hoppers a few days later so it still seems like we have more every week than we had the week before. There's been a lot of cicadas at night---the whole loud "buzz" of all these living things at night is so loud that you can't even sleep with a window open on a cool night because they'll keep you awake. I saw a dead cicada lying in the driveway yesterday, so maybe their population is beginning to decline. There are some veggies in the garden that the hoppers ate all the way down to the ground, and I sprayed one time this summer with a chemical pesticide, or I think the hoppers would have devoured the entire garden. That's the first time I've ever sprayed my entire garden with a chemical pesticide. It killed the grasshoppers, but killed lots of beneficial insects too, so I doubt I'll ever do it again. I hated everything about it and think that in future years when the hoppers are extremely bad, I'll let them devour the garden and I'll just take up needlepoint or something for the rest of the growing season. We are at the point now where we desperately need for the blister beetles to show up in the next few weeks and devour tons of grasshopper eggs or we'll be in trouble in 2015. This is the first time I've begun actively rooting for the blister beetles to please show up here. Dawn

We are seeing a variety of possible causes with this string of pearls problem. Some are overfed and might have got too hot or anerobic, others like smalltowngal knows she did not overfeed. Some think their food/bedding was too acid while other people say they feed the same thing with no problem. And borderbarb found a single worm with the same symptoms. It supports my thinking that the SOP appearance is what a dying worm looks like for whatever reason. People are noticing them because they are looking closer. I'm thinking another cause may be a viral/bacterial infection. If it is,there is nothing you can do, except let the surviving/healthy worms reproduce and hope they are resistant in the future. Think of it as a bin epidemic. What we have in a bin situation is actually a very intensive population density. We try to maximize the population for our conditions so we get the highest production of VC. It is a matter of time before something disrupts the system. I suspect cyclic problems happen more often than we guess. It's just it is not observed and sometimes not as big a percentage of worms die at once.

In the lawn, a tough competitor. But not even on the same page for overall destructiveness as garlic mustard or buckthorn-two plants that can prevent tree seedlings from developing on the forest floor. This one can't do anything like that, not even close. Which brings me to the subject of how everyone seems to have their own version of "invasive species". For some, they think that is just any plant-native or not-with aggressive ability to colonize a site. For others, it's a plant that can naturalize in the landscape, whether it is causing any problems or not. In reality, true invasive exotic species are those which can and do replace whole native plant communities, things like common buckthorn and garlic mustard...things where, once they get going, the total nature of the site is completely altered and simplified...usually down to just that one species. I've had Glechoma in my lawn forever. A few times, I've went through the trouble of controlling it, and this can be done as I covered above. Right now, it's back in full force, having crept in from the sides, but since I now suddenly have three grandchildren that do or will be playing on our grass, I've withheld the phenoxy stuff. I'll live with the ground ivy for now, and in fact, there is one thing I've always actually liked about it-the minty fresh smell whenever I cut the lawn. But to lump this one in with the bad invasives is just misguided. +oM