# wormy nuisance



## SE18 (Feb 21, 2008)

Sometime back I ran a post about a canal I was thinking of building. I'm getting progress on it and did a water test. The next day, there were a couple dozen earthworms lying on the bottom, all apparently dead.

I fished them out with photo developing tweezers (from my darkroom days), and tossed them into the garden. Wouldn't you know it, the hounds came out and rolled in the dead worms.

I'm thinking about building a mini stone wall around the canal to discourage the worms, as I can see this being a persistent problem in the future.

Has anyone else had this type of problem? Any ideas?

Thanks.

Dave V


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

I wonder if table salt would discourage them. I'm assuming that you used a liner of some sort. 

John


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## SE18 (Feb 21, 2008)

Thanks, John. I don't know. Every time before it rains applying salt. I'll try the small 1/2 inch high wall idea, thinking the worms might be too lazy to scale it. 

I constructed the canal with a layer of concrete, followed by 2 layers of 4-mil plastic, followed by more concrete and then a layer of brownish colored mortar (I colored it). I'm in the process of carving rock patterns in the mortar so the underlying concrete shows thru as mortar joint simulations. I also need to build some wooden locks for the canal and maybe a small canal boat. 

It's about 20 or so feet long and the width varies but is about 9 inches across. Nothing too spectacular. I'll try to post a photo once it progresses some more. 

Dave


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

They get cleaned out of our river each year when we do spring cleaning. No big deal because, they deteriorate to almost nothing over time.

Put some rocks in your rivers and you won't see them. Remember that worms are the gardner's friend.


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## SE18 (Feb 21, 2008)

Thanks, maybe I'm worrying over nothing.


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