Not until your post.

They sound great but very pricey. I would consider getting a big order and splitting it up with a few others if anyone is interested. I figure they'll either multiply over the years or die off completely. Either way I'm not out as much money and it will work wonderful or all die out but I wouldn't have spent as much.

I ordered 1,000. I've read the best way to disperse them is in clumps. About 25 per group and not spaced out to far. Wet leaves then should be dropped on top of them.

I also emailed the guy and he said the worms will survive as long as there isn't a ground freeze deeper than 12".

In my area east of Colorado Springs, I've only noticed ground freezes of a few inches.

Sounds like you are doing it mainly in a garden area if you need to initially cover them up with the leaves. Being that a garden area is being tilled up anyway to split perennials or plant vegetables etc., I would think the area should be tilled up enough. The lawn area though I would consider the worms for. Did you read/hear anything about grass areas?

We had something similar to that move through here about 15 years ago - they were incredible things, leaving a half/full golf-ball sized mound everywhere they were, those mounds were 3-4 every sq foot. Lord knows I tripped on them often enough.

After a few years, they went away. But I could track their progress across my few acres, they moved about 20 feet from year to year.

now all I've got are worms. Plenty of worms.

I'm getting them for the clay. The guy said they would borough through anything except solid rock. I'm hoping they can break up clay, and eventually populate a large portion of my lot.

I have gardens and a vineyard and flower beds and lawn. Anything they break up and help will be appreciated.

I've read they can go up to 12 feet deep.

All around my place, the robins have hatchlings. My lawn is, apparently, earth worm central, and at any given moment there are a dozen robins out there worm hunting. Successfully.

I've posted before that I've gone over to a clover/grass mix lawn that I never fertilize or spray, the concept based on New Zealand pasture management practices, where the Dutch white clover feeds the earth worms which feed the grass which feeds the sheep. Except in my case, the sheep is a lawn mower, and I use the clippings - and I get plenty - to mulch / fertilize the vegetable and flower beds, all the trees, shrubs, etc.

David - can give a link back to your thread about the clover/grass mix lawn? Still wanting to learn more about, and get the courage up, to do something like that with our back yard lawn. Or maybe those Alabama Jumpers would help!

I think our garden area is ok as is, since my DH tilled it up quite a bit over the last couple of years as well as we added a lot of additional garden soil and compost. It still has rocks mixed in that we try to pick out every time we are out in it, but it will be impossible to get rid of them all unless we completely replaced all the soil! Too bad those worms won't burrow through them ;^)

That's a fascinating story, David, about those worms moving 20ft a year and that you could see their pathways! I wonder why they moved on?

At the link is a 2010 thread where I mentioned it -

You can purchase any kind of clover seed pretty easily, the two that seem to be most recommended for the climate / soil are Dutch white and Strawberry, and I just over-seeded the lawn. I had to do this three different times - two acres of grass, some spots died off and needed re-doing.

The only 'drawback' is a very healthy crop of dandelions - but if one gets over the initial idea that its a weed, and starts to think of it as a plant whose tap root brings up nutrients from far below, that they're edible, and those yellow flowers aren't all that bad, then you don't mind. Although this time of year, there's a forest of stalks out there.....

Anyway, the lawn gets better and healthier every year.

As for watching those huge worms/night crawlers migrate, it wasn't so much the pathways, just watching those mounds of dirt show up every morning.

Here is a link that might be useful: link