Jumping worms eating bamboo roots?

Other things that involve bamboo

Moderator: needmore

Post Reply
mshaffer
Posts: 155
Joined: Tue Dec 26, 2006 6:27 pm
Location info: 0

Jumping worms eating bamboo roots?

Post by mshaffer »

Does anyone know if the invasive "jumping worms" can damage bamboo roots? I found out from my neighbor that they are common in my neighborhood. Some of my largest, healthiest moso culms are just dying for seemingly no reason.
Alan_L
Posts: 2966
Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2009 4:13 pm
Location info: 81
Location: St. Louis area

Re: Jumping worms eating bamboo roots?

Post by Alan_L »

It seems like their biggest harm is to the soil itself -- they eat organic litter at or near the soil surface. So I'd be surprised if they were the cause for isolated culms dying, but who knows. Plants are weird. :)
Tarzanus
Posts: 1457
Joined: Sun Jan 16, 2011 12:05 am
Location info: 0
Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia

Re: Jumping worms eating bamboo roots?

Post by Tarzanus »

I think they are not harming your bamboo. They are usually wigglin' on top or very near under leaf litter and mulch. There are no roots there. However, like Alan already stated, they do harm to top-soil which becomes more prone to erosion and they can damage grass and other small shallow-rooted plants. Their droppings are quite nutrient rich and they promote growth of weeds which can't be the reason of Moso damage either.

Usually Moso just takes a bit of time to establish. When it does, there should be no more damage.
mshaffer
Posts: 155
Joined: Tue Dec 26, 2006 6:27 pm
Location info: 0

Re: Jumping worms eating bamboo roots?

Post by mshaffer »

Ok, that's good to know that it's probably not the worms. Maybe it's because we had such wet weather. A lot of the rhizomes turned black and died. I've been trying not to mulch it as much since I think that acted like a sponge.
Post Reply