If You See This Worm In Montana Kill It Immediately

Ready For A New Kind Of Nightmare In Montana?

Meet the Amynthas worm, also known as Asian jumping worm.  This is one bad little dude.

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If You See These Bugs In Montana, Kill Them On Sight

Asian Jumping Worm with White Band Circled

It looks like an earth worm, but it's so much NOT like an earth worm.  When Amynthas worms take over your soil, your soil becomes nearly completely uninhabitable to plant life. From the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources:

• Thrash when disturbed, even jumping into the air or shedding their tails to escape
• Can be identified by the thick whitish or grayish ring (similar to the thick pink/tan ring on a night crawler) It's also more of a grey color than brown
• Will quickly transform soil to a texture similar to coffee grounds that is inhospitable to many plants.
• Deplete the soil of nutrients and impact soil organisms making the soil friendly to invasive plants
• Usually from 1 1/2 to 8 inches long
• Will not die if you cut it, it will then be 2 or more jumping worms
• DO NOT fish with these worms

Soil That's Infected With Asian Jumping Worm

Check It Out: The Soil Your Undies Challenge

What Do You Do If You Find These Bad Worms?

• Kill them.  Every place I looked said to put them in a plastic bag and leave them in the sun. When dead, toss them in the trash IN THE BAG
• If you can do it, keep the cocoon over 104 degrees for 3 days.  They say that covering a compost pile or topsoil of a garden that is in full sun with clear plastic can raise the temps this high.  Even in the spring
• The insecticide BotaniGard can cut down their population HOWEVER, they caution not to use this insecticide near pollinators

Check out this video to see this nasty nightmare of a worm: