Knowing how to kill earthworms is useful to help you scare them out of your space. Besides, this is also good for the surrounding environment and your health.
Yet, killing the earthworms is not as simple as you think. Sometimes, you must apply multiple methods to eliminate the large quantities of earthworms around your location.
Let’s continue reading this article to explore the effective ways with complete instructions to help you remove the earthworms without trouble.
What Are Earthworms?
Earthworms are the invertebrate terrestrial hermaphrodites that include female and male organs in the same body.
They often live in damp soil, consuming decaying leaves or roots to obtain the nutrition for growth.
Besides, their body is streamlined without arms, legs, fins, or antennae, with circular muscles surrounding each segment. They will move through the support of bristles.
Also, the earthworms don’t have eyes and lungs. Thus, they use their skin to breathe and feel the touch and light.
Pros and Cons
Regarding earthworms’ benefits, they may help improve the health of plants and natural soil by transporting vital minerals and nutrients from under the earth to the surface through their waste.
Their worm castings will give the surrounding soil great fertility and support the topsoil.
Earthworms also provide favorable conditions to upgrade the soil structure and boost the healthy growth of the plants.
Apart from the benefits, this creature has several noticeable downsides.
Many earthworms appearing in lawns and gardens will attract hungry pests, such as gophers and moles, that may destroy your lawn or plants in the garden.
Plus, the unsightly castings of earthworms can lead to a sticky mess in your garden or lawns.
Besides, the earthworms have bad impacts on the ecosystems, such as causing erosion due to changing the natural structure of soil or decreasing biodiversity.
How To Kill Earthworms: A Detailed Guide
Using chemicals is a powerful and effective method to kill earthworms.
Yet, if you worry about the risks of chemicals to the health and surrounding environment, apply the natural ways, such as using vinegar or salt to remove the earthworms from any place you want.
Use Chemicals
Apply Insecticide
Insecticide is one of the chemicals that may help you eliminate the earthworm from your lawn or yard.
It works by disrupting the different physiological activities of earthworms to make them immobile and reduce their population.
Yet, this chemical type will not be efficient in keeping the earthworm populations at a low level when you only use it once.
Thus, consider what insecticide kills earthworms best and reapply it each season to control the earthworm population.
Use Fungicide
Aside from insecticides, fungicides are also toxic enough to make earthworms die.
The options for the right fungicide are diverse but require some key ingredients, like thiophanate-methyl, thiabendazole, and benomyl, to remove the earthworms with the best results.
These ingredients often appear in the benzimidazole fungicides. Applying the carbamate fungicide is also effective in helping you eliminate the earthworms from your garden or lawn.
This way is helpful when you don’t know what kills earthworms quickly and easily.
Use Sevin
If you are looking for a simple and fast method of killing earthworms in lawns or gardens, using Sevin is one of the advisable methods.
Sevin, a carbaryl-based pesticide, contains high toxicity that can reduce the earthworm population.
This product is available in 4 toxicity levels, so opt for the extremely severe toxicity – from 76-100% – to achieve the best potency.
This is also why Sevin dust works as one of the quick and efficient squash bug and earthworm killers, assisting you in remove them without effort.
Remove Earthworm Without Chemical
Use Foolproof
Foolproof is the natural way to help you kill earthworms safely without toxic chemicals. This method is simple to make the earthworms escape from the soil with high moisture.
They will quickly shrivel under the sunlight and die due to a lack of oxygen.
Apply Vinegar
If you don’t use toxic chemicals to avoid the dangers to the health and environment, try to apply vinegar as a homemade earthworm killer.
Vinegar also includes the acidity that can raise the moisture level to destroy the earthworms’ bodies and make them die faster.
Thus, prepare an empty sprayer bottle, pour the acidic vinegar into it, and spray the areas where earthworms appear to get rid of them.
You should repeat this method several times to get the best result.
Little did you know, vinegar also kills nutgrass grif your garden is suffering from this invader.
Use Baking Soda
Baking soda is also another natural way to help you remove the earthworms. It is a compound with high toxicity to make earthworms sick and die.
Baking soda works in high doses by irritating the earthworms’ skin and hurting the respiratory system, leading to death.
Thus, choose and apply baking soda if you don’t know how to kill earth worms without chemicals.
Use Soapy Water
Applying soapy water is ideal to help you eliminate the earthworms without applying pesticides or any toxic chemicals.
Pour the soapy water at a moderate level into the earthworm killer spray bottle and use it where worms appear to eliminate them.
This chemical-free method forces them to get out of the soil, thereby decreasing the earthworm population .
Kill Earthworms with Salt
Salt effectively makes the body of earthworms stop producing the essential nutrients and water to survive. The skin of earthworms is also susceptible to damage by salt.
They will die after their body becomes dehydrated and injured.
Thus, try applying salt if you don’t know how to get rid of earthworms naturally.
Reasons To Get Rid of Earthworms
You need to know how to get rid of earth worms for a few reasons.
First, the crowded earthworm population may damage the plants and lawns, cause natural erosion, and harm pets and the surrounding environment.
Second, the earthworms carry potentially dangerous germs that affect your health. This is why you should apply effective methods to remove them immediately.
Conclusion
Hopefully, the above-detailed guide with useful information may help you know how to kill earthworms without difficulty.
The powerful and efficient method to eliminate the earthworms is applying chemicals, such as insecticide, fungicide, or Sevin.
However, these ways are toxic and dangerous to the health and environment.
Thus, using natural methods as alternatives, such as salt, soapy water, baking soda, and vinegar, is useful to help you get rid of the earthworms safely.
