Knowing that the facility is aware of jumping worms and has a plan in place for mitigating their presence is an important first step. Here are the best practices that we recommend composters follow. Understanding these at a high level will help you understand if the compost facility is doing a good job.

State-certified compost facilities are required to follow regulations and best management practices which include minimum temperature requirements that are helpful in controlling the threat of jumping worms.

Non-certified facilities may also reach these higher temperatures and have their own plan for protecting against jumping worms, but it’s not a state-mandated requirement, so it’s good to ask.

Jumping worms have spread to every corner of Vermont. It’s likely that you know someone who has them in their garden, mulch, or on the edge of their lawn. This means that there’s a good chance that leaves and yard trimmings used to make compost contain jumping worms or their eggs cases (cocoons).

To help ensure that the worms don’t make it to the finished compost, compost facilities must:

• Ensure physical separation of incoming materials and composting materials

• Use separate equipment or extensive cleaning procedures between managing these different materials

You can do your part to minimize spread by checking your own leaves and yard trimmings for signs of jumping worms. If you already have them - don’t take them off your property.

Knowing that your landscaper is aware of jumping worms and has a plan in place for mitigating their presence is an important first step. Here are the best practices that we recommend landscapers follow. Understanding these at a high level will help you understand if they’re doing a good job.

Your landscaper should know if ALL of the places where they source materials are also following best practices for managing jumping worms.

It’s important that landscapers are ensuring that clean (worm-free) material is not reinfected either by other material that has jumping worms or by storing it in a place where jumping worms can get into their piles of soil and/or mulch.

Again - knowledge is key! Knowing that steps are being taken to identify and remove jumping worms is the most important thing anyone can do. Also - bare-root plants are less likely to come with jumping worms, so if you have a choice - request bare-root over potted plants.

Even if your landscaper is taking every precaution with their materials, they may well be providing services to properties infected with jumping worms. Although cleaning tools and equipment between customers may pose logistical challenges, this is the only real way to ensure that jumping worms or cocoons are not transferred from one site to the next.

Garden centers and plant nurseries are highly susceptible to the spread of jumping worms due to the wide variety of potted materials, bedded plants, mulches, soils, and composts, typically all imported from other sources and co-located within the same facility. Once discovered, some things can be done to reduce spread, but not all facilities have adequate space, hardened surfaces, or resources required to control jumping worm populations.

Garden centers should have regular conversations with the suppliers of all of their products, including bulk products, asking them about their own jumping worm management programs to ensure the decreased likelihood of spread.

One of the biggest challenges with identifying a jumping worm problem is that the worms are not always visible. Identification is extremely difficult until the worms reach the juvenile or adult stage in late spring and summer. Once they have reached maturity and are mobile, it is much easier to see them. Garden center operators should schedule regular inspections of the areas most prone to harboring worms - below or within potted plants kept on the ground, in or around old piles of mulch or wood products, in the upper layers of the soil around bedded plants, trees, etc.

• Keep feedstocks and finished compost separate. Incoming leaves, wood chips, yard/garden trimmings that could contain jumping worms, cocoons, or eggs should be kept separate from finished compost and soil products. 

• Follow BMPs for hot composting. Temperatures of at least 105 F kills jumping worms, cocoons, and eggs. Following BMPs ensures that all the composting material has a chance to heat up.

• Ensure that finished compost piles and soil products are not (re)infected. Use separate equipment for handling pre- and post-hot-composting material. Any shared equipment should be thoroughly cleaned before it is moved between areas.

• Make your own compost. Make sure that your carbon source is clean, which likely means using material from your own site or acquiring wood chips or shavings from clean sources. Avoid leaf mulch sourced from offsite; retain fallen leaves on your property to use for mulch/compost

• Buy compost from reputable sources. Recently there have been some reports of snake worms in bags of commercial compost. Even though you may not see any worms in the compost, their egg casings may be present.

  If you buy compost in bags, put the bags in the sun for several days to heat up (105F is the temperature that kills jumping worms and cocoons.)

  If you buy compost in bulk, solarize the compost by laying it on and wrapping it completely in plastic, which the seems weighted down.

• Wash the roots of plants you buy or receive in a plant exchange. Bare root exchanges are best.

• Grow plants from seed or cuttings, if you have the time and patience.

• Educating yourself and others helps! Ask the recommended questions of your compost facility, landscapers, and garden centers

• Communicate with homeowners about their knowledge of jumping worms. If they have an infestation, work with them on proper ways to control like mustard treating, handpicking, or solarizing. Report any infestations.

• Communicate with soil and plant vendors about how they are mitigating the spread of Jumping Worms

• Inspect all plants and soil products for visible worms or castings before transporting them to a new location.

• Don’t transport wood products, soil, leaves, or yard debris that is knowingly infested with Jumping Worms.

• Purchase bare-root plants if possible

• Thoroughly clean equipment, tools, and truck beds between jobs.

• Communicate with vendors about how they are mitigating the spread of Jumping Worms

• Inspect incoming plants and mulch, woodchip, and soil products for visible worms or castings.

• Think about solarizing potting soil mixes before transplanting and potting plants.

• Sell cuttings or bare-root plants, if possible.

• Sterilize re-used pots.

• Thoroughly clean garden tools, boots, rakes, shovels, and loader buckets between use.

• Utilize impervious areas (concrete, asphalt, etc.) to store soil and plants.