Mass suicide of earthworms?

[drchelo]

Is anyone else seeing this problem? Over the last 2 months or so, I have been noticing a large number of earthworms dead on the sidewalks, about 8-12" away from the edges of the lawns. The reason I noticed them is that one of my dogs has decided she likes sidewalk-fired earthworm, and stops to nibble at each one..I don't recall ever seeing this..but there are about 8-12 dead worms per each concrete square. These appear to be grown worms (not juveniles) and they are on the driveways, the sidewalks and probably in the grass..
I don't use any pesticides, herbicides or chemicals in my grass...but I see them on my sidewalk as well as those of my neighbors'.
Any ideas anyone?

[chuckfranke]

Reaching here... is this after a good hose watering?????

If it is right after a good watering I have one idea - Chloramine. By adding ammonia to chlorine in the summertime you get a chemical, chloramine, that is far more effective in killing the stuff in your water, chlorine will dissipate from a bucket of water in 8 hours on a hot day but chloramine last DAYS- tougher molecule. In July/August there are frequent algae blooms in the resorvoirs so the folks who monitor water quality nuke it with chloramine to eliminate that lovely Florida well-water aroma from the tap - downside is that invertebrates don't like the stuff.

I can't remember whether it was Chlorine or Ammonia someone once told me would bring worms to the surface for fishin with but in this case who cares - Chloramine has both and my guess here is that the worms ain't diggin it.

Make any sense????

Chloramine is harmless for us but if they crank it up in the summer for algae blooms it will do for microbes and inverebrates about what it will do for your gas mileage.

Just a thought....

[drchelo]

Actually, it has happened without any noticeable relation to watering or not watering. During the heat of the summer, I water only as necessary, and then I try to water as deeply as possible; my adjacent neighbors seem to have their sprinklers on more often - and this did not seem to have any bearing on the numbers of concrete-sauteed earthworm.
Yesterday was a noticeably cooler day here in Dallas, and it had not rained, nor had I watered...but the worm population in my compost bins does not seem to be diminished or overcrowded. I have seen a veritable explosion in the little lizard population. Perhaps that has to do with the profusion of grasshoppers this season.
In fact, this Spring, Summer and Fall have been more dry than in past years - so maybe that is why the worms are doing a lemming number...who knows?

[The Ent]

Do you have underground power conduits there, or do your power lines come in from an overhead line?

[drchelo]

All the lines - electric and telephone are overhead, as far as I know. I don't have one of those "underground" fences....