Predator and Disease Infestations in Earthworms
Provided by Jindi Agricultural Earthworm Breeding Base: Diseases in earthworms are caused by the impact of adverse environmental conditions. The most common disease in earthworms is due to feed acidification. As earthworms consume large amounts of acidic food, bacterial activity increases sharply, leading to the secretion of alkaline substances in the digestive tract. When the intestine loses its ability to neutralize, diseases occur. Abnormal fermentation continues in the earthworm's crop and gizzard, often causing protein poisoning or excessive stomach acid, which manifests as spasmodic nodules throughout the body, making the earthworm shorter and thicker, with red swollen clitellum, excessive secretion of mucus, crawling in the breeding area or burrowing into the bottom of the feed without eating, eventually turning white and dying. In severe cases, the earthworm may experience ruptured body walls, broken segments, or damaged cocoons. Feed acidification also leads to the proliferation of insects and bacteria such as red mites and white nematodes. Therefore, when feeding earthworms, it is necessary to pay attention to the hydrogen ion concentration (pH value) of the feed, adjusting it to neutrality, and observing changes in the hydrogen ion concentration of the earthworms and feed during daily management. This is an extremely important part of earthworm farming.
Earthworm Predator Infestation and Prevention
In natural or artificial breeding environments, earthworms face many diseases and predators. These include various carnivorous wild animals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, arthropods, other annelids, and various parasites such as tapeworms, roundworms, parasitic flies, moths, and other bacteria. Various rodents, weasels (also known as yellow rats), raccoons, badgers, and wild boars pose a significant threat. Especially rodents like house mice, field mice, and weasels that love eating earthworms and are good at digging holes, often entering breeding areas to consume large quantities of earthworms and feed, posing a great danger to earthworm farming. In outdoor farming, many birds enjoy eating earthworms, causing some damage. Snakes, frogs, and toads also like to eat earthworms.
Various arthropods and insects often harm earthworms, especially ants, which not only enjoy eating earthworms but also feed on the feed, building nests in breeding boxes or feed piles, posing a significant threat to young worms. Sometimes they even drag the cocoons into ant nests to consume. Many spiders, centipedes, terrestrial mollusks such as centipedes, millipedes, snails, and slugs also eat or hunt earthworms.
Additionally, many tapeworms and nematodes use earthworms as intermediate hosts, needing to spend time inside the earthworm to complete their life cycle, absorbing nutrients from the earthworm and causing harm.
Some parasitic flies lay eggs inside earthworms. It has been reported that there is a parasitic black fly that can lay eggs inside Japanese heterolipid earthworms, hatching larvae inside the worm and consuming the nutrients within the earthworm, eventually causing the earthworm's death. Some protozoa, such as nematodes, often parasitize the esophagus, body cavity, blood vessels, reproductive organs, and cocoons of earthworms. These are the main parasites that endanger earthworms (see Table 9). Of course, some bacteria, viruses, and microorganisms can also cause diseases in earthworms, although this is less common.
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