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.
History shows that once an invasive species is finally regulated in Ontario (like Phragmites or Zebra Mussels), the cost of management is 25 times higher than if it had been addressed during the "emerging" phase.
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 brush in your gear for things such as pet paws and bicycle tires. 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. It's as simple as covering it with clear plastic for several days/weeks to reliably destroy cocoons, as the lethal limit is 104∘F (40∘C) for 72 hours.
Paved areas such as underused parking lots with simple on-site biosecurity provisions can accommodate large amounts of soil tarped and heat-treated, an almost zero-cost solarization treatment to supply the construction industry with required adherence to clean soil protocols.
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, while they are a prohibited species in various American states familiar with their impact to our immediate south.
Limited corralling of Jumping worms may be possible using vertical below-ground barriers of small-aperture screen sealed to pegged vertical pvc tarp above ground, similar to wildlife barrier techniques used as invasive species control for above-ground species such as amphibians. These would not need to be placed deeply as jumping worms are typically only in the first 2-4 inches and could be piloted at trailheads where there have been sightings, as a measure to protect the trail-side forest. This has never been tried.
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.
