Lekholoane from Lesotho Southern Africa thanks for this informative topic. Information never goes stale as this issue was discussed 16 years ago but the facts are still relevant today. Your non-chemical treatment methods are humane and I found that very comforting than to use chemicals. My personal experience is earthworms are good in gardens but wreak havoc in pots. The growing medium tries out to a very hard cake which cements and impedes the plant roots becomes hydrophobic, contributing to high cost and wasted water.

jean & dan While where slugs hang out in a lasagna garden is interesting, I don't have a lasagna garden and don't plan to continue my beds using that method. I didn't ask about a lasagna bed in the opening post, just whether Sluggo would kill earthworms, but it got added into the stew anyway. As I've done for years, my irrigation system is laid on top of the compost existing from the prior year and the cardboard is placed on top of that. Leaves are placed on top of the cardboard for aesthetic reasons, eventually to become compost, and to keep the cardboard damp and attractive to earthworms. Unless it's right after rain, the leaves stay pretty dry on top, and I've never seen a slug on the upper leaves, just under the cardboard and eventually at the boundary of the cardboard and the leaves. For those of you who answered the question about whether Sluggo kills earthworms, thanks. That's what I wanted to know.

I have a solution for you! My problem was similar to yours. I have a small patio for a large lawn swing underneath 2 large Norway maple trees. It was left undisturbed for 25 years and by now the cracks between the 2 ft. square pavers were about 4 inches high with dirt, plus grass and weeds growing rambunctiously thereon. I cleaned off 2 squares. On one, I dug out an extra 3/4 inch of ground and filled it with used cat litter. (clumping, therefore sodium bentonite kind) On both, I planted moss which I had scraped out of my grass. The very next day the square with just the moss was completely uplifted with worm castings! For the first time I looked closely at the soil and realized it was all worm castings. For 5 days I watched and although the moss turned brown and seemed to die on the cat litter, not a single worm casting appeared! I've been experimenting with used cat litter and used it here to try to prevent weeds from sprouting in the cracks. Eureka! Preventing the worm castings was MUCH better. So now I've re-done that entire patio with 3/4 inch of cat litter in the cracks. I really like the look of moss there so I went to the woods and brought home 3 kinds of moss. Some have a thin layer of roots and soil. Some have a thin layer of roots and bark; so we'll see if any kind survives. The original moss I tried had no roots or soil and it survived on the bare ground but got heaved out with the worm castings.

Oddly enough to many gardeners, earthworms are heavily implicated in a number of serious negative impacts on our native plant communities, at least up here. In short, the glaciers removed all earthworm species from vast swaths of N. America and all-yes- all of those worms you see in places like this are invasive species! Florida of course did not get glaciated but that doesn't mean those big European nightcrawlers belong there......or whatever worms you may be finding. This is an emerging topic and I admit to being on the fence about some aspects of it, but earthworms are held in a much dimmer light in some circles than the average gardener might imagine. People dumping their leftover bait after fishing is thought to be one means by which this has happened, and in that case mea culpa. Not these days but long ago.