When gardeners say, “Jump!” these worms say, “How high?”
Experts at the California Department of Food and Agriculture are warning gardeners about “aggressive” snakelike worms called Amynthas agrestis, or the Asian jumping worm.
But “jumping worm” is putting it nicely. The squirming monsters are known to jump up to a foot off the ground.
“True to their name, they jump and thrash immediately when handled, behaving more like a threatened snake than a worm, sometimes even breaking and shedding their tail when caught,” the CDFA said in a report, adding that they have been known to jump off the ground or out of bait cans.
They also have a big appetite and are “extremely active and aggressive,” the CDFA warned in the report.
The worms hail from east Asia, particularly Japan and the Korean Peninsula, and entered the US in the 1900s through the soil in potted plants, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Since then, the invasive nibblers have been spotted in 34 states, most recently in California.
The tweet above from last year shows jumping worms found along Irondequoit Creek in Webster, New York.