8/13/2011 12:08 PM
Bob,
I think the terminology used is misleading, I would refer to the problem with earthworms as a nuisance not a pest. They are not doing damage to the turf, in fact I see it as the opposite, a sign my soil greens are very healthy and active biologically. However, this may become an issue for two reasons; one the little soil mounds left by the worms in the am and two the huge numbers of worms on the surface of the greens in the am. They do cause the mechanic to have more work than normal keeping reels sharp and cutting well. They do make a mess of a green when mowing over the mounds and smearing the soil also smashing or removing lots of worms is maybe not so good. I had fought this problem in the past myself and tried many different approaches, from blowing off greens before mowing, dragging, finally I spoke to others and tried using sevin at low rates to irritate the earthworms. Not trying to kill them but to irritate them at the surface and keep them in the soil, this was an old school method used in the past by some of my mentors long before sand greens were the fad. This method worked great I applied sevin once in spring and had no problem with worms all summer, when it appeared they were starting to come back to the surface again in large numbers we repeated the application. I would say it lasted a good 6 months, the rate was 1oz/m ( I think may have been lower?), again not meant to kill just irritate them at the surface. I did not water it in deeply just wash off the surface. The idea was to create a barrier to keep the worm in the soil doing its thing keeping the soil aerated, not aerating the surface.