"Has anyone on the List ever dug soil from a neonic-treated field and compared the earthworm population to similar nearby soil that has the same amount of organic matter?"

You would need to examine tilled fields as well as no till fields (drilled)  because you will find a difference in the "soil" between tilled and no tilled.    So the researcher would need to have a neonic and non neonic tilled and no till field of the same type of soil profile.

The majority of all earth worm species are not native to the US or North America (at least the parts which were "scraped" by the glaciers in the last ice age).   The " red wigglers" and night crawlers are invasive species which came to these shores along with most species of earth worms in the plant and soil material brought over from the Old World by the immigrants.  

I never had night crawlers in my "yard", until I dumped some in the garden many, many years back (left overs from fishing).   Now there is healthy population.

P.S.  What is the accepted definition of a manly researcher?

Steve
Central Illinois

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html