🚨 Attention WNC Gardeners 🚨 Don't let jumping worms establish in your area! Jumping worms are an invasive species that wreck havoc on our forest floors. These worms live in the top few inches of soil and feed on leaf litter, stripping the soil of nutrients and leaving behind dry, grainy castings with very little value. Jumping worms disrupt natural ecosystems and can damage your home garden, keeping seeds from sprouting and making soils inhospitable to many native plant species. Jumping worms are shiny and slightly iridescent. They are a greyish-brown color rather than the duller red-brown of other earthworms. Jumping worms are large worms (4-8 in) and have a milky-white ring around them. The most common species of jumping worms in North Carolina are parthenogenetic, meaning they can reproduce without mating. This is why even one jumping worm is one too many! If you find jumping worms in your garden, get rid of them. As their name implies, they jump, wiggle and thrash about ...