Do rototillers kill worms?

[RadarTech]

Guilty... guilty of replying to a post without continuing to read the thread to see what had already been said about the PETE post.

Your sentence: You are from now on to be referred to as the Honorary TBN Tractor and Attachment Engineer.

I plead nolo preposteraso....
I was using the droid...

 

[Kamik]

Scientific Amercian Magazine, March 2009

Headline: Invasive Earthworms Denude Forests in U.S. Great Lakes Region

Worms, such as the night crawler, eat leaf litter which acts as a rooting medium for new growth

Select quote:

The earthï½*worms, Groffman reports, ç”°ome into an area with a thick organic mat, and two to five years later that layer is gone.

As a result, some northern hardwood forests that once had a lush understory now have but a single species of native herb and virtually no tree seedlings. Evidently, earthworms change the forest soils from a fungal to a bacterial-dominated system, which speeds up the conversion of leaf detritus to mineral compounds and thereby potentially robs plants of organic nutrients.

 

[Milton Burro]

After the first year of tilling the same spot, I've noticed the lil' buggers jumping on the tines and riding them like a ferris wheel. You may kill a few until they learn.

 

[Taylortractornut]

One of the illegal dumps I cleaned up for the county was all leaf and chips dumped. I noticed on a 4 foot layer there was thousands of red worms and night crawlers. I spread that layer on the tomato beds and man oh man I had some 1.5 pound brandwines and several 1.25 pound ones till frost. The resot of the pile is full of them. I think over tilling would damage them. I do top till the top 2 inches on some of my truck patches.


I do most of my cultivation with a Farmall Cub and cultivators, but most of my peppers and tomatos and few others use intensive mulching with leaves and straw to keep the weeds down.

 

[charlz]

I had heard a few years back and was surprised by the info that worms simply don't naturally exist in some areas.

Below is a quote from this paper:

http://biology.cos.ucf.edu/files/seminars/2010%20Spring/bohlen.pdf

In a nutshell:
-Many northern temperate forests in the US have had no natural earthworm populations since the last glacial period, due to slow northward expansion of native species
-Exotic earthworm species from Europe and Asia are invading many of these forests, substantially altering forest soils
-These invasions can alter nutrient storage and availability and greatly affect populations and communities of other flora and fauna that inhabit forest soils
-Invasions by earthworms are likely to increase in northern forests with increased human activity and changing climate; the consequences should be considered along with other important changes taking place in these ecosystem


Worm poop is considered a great fertilizer. I till anyway and have seen both whole worms and parts of worms behind the tiller

 

[arpt209]

My horse had worms once. He seemed to be pretty miserable with them. Plumb wore his tail out rubbing on things. I never thought of running over him with a rototiller to get rid of them. I didn't want them after seeing how unhappy that horse was so I started chewing tobacco. I've been chewing tobacco for over 40 years & 'nary a worm. Even before I had a rototiler........