Together We Can Stop the Spread of Jumping Worms in Canada
Jumping worms are one of the few invasive species humans can actually stop from spreading—but we must act fast. They only move when humans move soil, mulch, or plants, which means simple biosecurity actions can prevent their establishment. The window to act is small: if we delay, these worms are poised to remodel Canadian forests and green spaces.
How You Can Stop Them
1. Raise Awareness
Make jumping worms a prohibited species locally and nationally.
Educate friends, neighbours, and community groups about the risk they pose.
Never use Jumping Worms as bait. Inform anglers of the danger and the need to bag and dispose.
Photograph and report any suspected sightings to platforms like iNaturalist app—citizen science helps track infestations.
2. Keep Soil and Gear Clean
Always wear clean footwear when entering forests, parks, or green spaces. Jumping worm cocoons are 1-3 mm. One can create dozens more per season.
Install boot brush stations with scuff mats at all vulnerable and especially at high-traffic trailheads.
Advocate for community Boot Brush Station building days to build and install many fast at minimal cost. The Bruce Trail Earth Day builds linked in reference are an example of this.
Clean tools, equipment, and vehicles after contact with soil or compost. Mandatory pressure washing by the construction and landscaping industry (among others) is a simple measure that guarantees vehicles arrive at new sites clean, without jumping worm cocoons carried in on soil. Mining often uses inexpensive pressure washing of vehicles on the way out, and so is an industry familiar with such a protocol, but on the way in to an area would be most relevant in this case.
By minimizing off-site soil movement, tracking and requisite documentation of soil origin, mandating heat treatment of off-site soil, mulch, and compost, and cleaning equipment between sites construction contractors can easily prevent jumping worm spread.
Any locations where landscapers import untreated mulch, soil and "free wood chips" from southern locations such as the GTA are at high risk.
Normalize carrying a small brush in your gear with a disposal bag to clean things such as pet paws and bicycle tires as well as for spontaneous hiking. Ask for a brush at adventure outlets and outfitter stores and encourage them to offer them to the public. Teach children forest-friendly footwear protocols and designated footwear for forest hikes. Dispose of brushed soil material in trash, not by the side of the road.
3. Soil solarization, backfill rather than import
Unlike other earthworms, Jumping worms are close to the surface and rarely further than 4 inches down. While jumping worm cocoons survive both cold winters and chemical treatment, if seen in a garden, take advantage of hot summers to solarize soil as they are sensitive to heat. Clear plastic under and over soil will hold in solar heat so that soil rises to a hot enough temperature to reliably destroy cocoons. While 55C will instantly kill jumping worm cocoons, 55C is also very harming to beneficial soil biota, the "immune system" of soil. As the lethal limit is 104∘F (40∘C) for 72 hours, testing with a probe to ensure overnight heat does not drop below this temperature can allow for a more gradual treatment that preserves the health of the surrounding soil.
Generally, heat-treated soil is already very affordable.
Always avoid moving untreated soil, mulch, or compost from infested areas. Landscapers, gardeners, use clean soil only and inform clients you are protecting them in this way.
Even low-level heat-treating does pasteurize innumerable beneficial organisms in soil needed to grow healthy plants that then must be added, and so prevention is always preferable.
4. Advocate for Biosecurity Protocols
Municipalities, parks, and developers must also lead the way and cooperate with strict soil transfer protocols.
Ensure the installation of basic and inexpensive boot brush stations and scuff mats at trailheads and forest entry points, and examine options for their placement at other arrival points such as relevant Northern airports, train and bus passenger stations.
Support all regulations that restrict the transport of infested soil, mulch, or potted plants. Fortunately, Canada does restrict soil and mulch from travelling here from US. However, jumping worms are not yet prohibited here and so within our borders they are moved, while they are a prohibited species in various American states familiar with their impact to our immediate south.
Pressure washing all industry vehicles travelling into Northern areas. Industry is already familiar with pressure washing, they use it in mining (as an example) to remove soil before trucks leave a site. Instead, vehicle pressure washing would be done before entering an area. We have all seen that jumping worm cocoons travel easily in soil and caked on mud. Pressure washing vehicles (and boot brushing for drivers) ensures that no soil from a contaminated area enters on tires, treads or trucks. It's basic to set up a drive-through station with a closed-loop system for water and debris without contaminating the station area and is not expensive infrastructure. Every entry point with enforced pressure washing takes one less variable out of the jumping worm equation and safe-guards forests for the future.
5. Bag, Report and Dispose of Worms
If you do find jumping worms, photograph and report them to iNaturalist or a similar tracking app.
Always bag and throw them in the garbage.
Never compost worms or infested soil—they will survive it and spread.
Never "gift" a potted plant to the forest.
Native plant shares already practice strict protocols before transferring plants—follow their lead.
Why Stopping Them Is Possible
Jumping worms can expand in population and range but cannot move to a new location on their own—their spread is entirely human-driven.
Their tough, leathery cocoons cannot survive heat treatment, meaning preventive actions are effective.
With prompt action, we can contain infestations before they become widespread.
The time to act is now. Jumping worms are poised to cause long-term damage to forests, gardens, and green spaces across Canada. Every clean boot, every bagged worm, every educated neighbour counts. The day may come when science has molecular tools like RNA interference that stop this species, but parthenogenesis make any scientific controls very challenging, and genetic tools work best when the population is small. If we can keep the population mitigated, there is real hope we can limit their spread. Together, by combining awareness, prohibition, and biosecurity, Canada can prevent this new invasive species from expanding further north and from damaging forests in our southern areas.
