Earthworms have provided ancient cultures with food and sources of medicinal cures. Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and practices in Japan, Vietnam, and Korea have focused first on earthworms as sources of food. Gradually fostering an approach to potential beneficial healing properties, there are renewed efforts through bioprospecting and evidence-based research to understand by m...

The present study was undertaken to investigate antichelmintic activity of petroleum ether, chloroform, ethanol and aqueous extract of the stem bark of Bridelia retusa S. on adult African night crawlers (Eudrilus euginae) earthworms due to its anatomical and physiological similarity with the intestinal roundworm parasites of human being. Antihelmintic activity was investigated at 50 mg/ml for a...

The growing demand for wood has resulted in large volumes of wood wastes that are daily released to the soil from the activities of sawmills in South-Western Nigeria. In an attempt to setup a bioremediation model for sawdust, this study therefore aimed at evaluating microbial diversity, and the level of digestive enzymes in the gut of earthworms (Eudrilus eugeniae, Libyodrilus violaceous and Hy...

Slugs are common pests of grass seed fields in western Oregon and the current focus of repeated, and often unsuccessful, efforts by growers to control them using molluscicides. Here we document rapid loss of molluscicidal bait pellets to earthworms and the resulting adverse effects on slug control. Three years of field studies were conducted at 17 locations with contrasting crops, soil types, r...

Earthworms mix soil layers and bind the with organic matter. This combination allows matter to disperse through also plants access nutrients they retains enhance soil’s fertility. improve biological, chemical, physical characteristics serve as conditioners. They do so by dissolution, aeration, breakdown, release of plant nutrients, their role in fastening nitrogen due growth hormone secretion. ...

Results We found that c-diversity decreases from south to north whereas a-diversity increases along the same latitudinal gradient. Communities in formerly glaciated regions are composed of smaller, more mobile species and show trait and taxonomical aggregation. In more southerly populations, which did not experience glaciation, earthworm species are larger, have smaller geographical ranges, and...

Analysis of earthworms offers potential for assessing the transfer of organic anthropogenic waste indicators (AWIs) derived from land-applied biosolid or manure to biota. Earthworms and soil samples were collected from three Midwest agricultural fields to measure the presence and potential for transfer of 77 AWIs from land-applied biosolids and livestock manure to earthworms. The sites consiste...

Herbicide use is increasing worldwide both in agriculture and private gardens. However, our knowledge of potential side-effects on non-target soil organisms, even on such eminent ones as earthworms, is still very scarce. In a greenhouse experiment, we assessed the impact of the most widely used glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup on two earthworm species with different feeding strategies. We dem...

—In the last decade the invasion of European earthworms into previously wormfree glaciated areas of North America has stimulated research into their impacts on native forest ecosystems in the region. As a first approximation, the impacts of invading earthworms are related to their biomass. However, direct measurements of biomass can be significantly affected by the moisture conditions under whi...