"If you live in an area of North America where the glaciers once rested, there are no native terrestrial worms in your region. All of North America's native worm populations reside in the southeast and the Pacific northwest. All other worms species were wiped out by the glaciers. This means that, for millennia, northern North America's native ecosystems have evolved without the influence of any type of worms in the soil.
When Europeans settled the continent, they brought with them earthworms, specifically those known as night crawlers and red wigglers, in the ballasts of their ships. Since then, these worms have been spread all over the continent by a wide range of human activities like farming, composting, and fishing. Since their introduction, many forests have been invaded by these annelids and are now suffering heavily from earthworm activities."
https://www.indefenseofplants.com/blog/2017/5/3/invasion-of-...
Earthworms are generally a very welcome addition to any soil ecology, but they're currently playing an extremely destructive role. A role that probably wouldn't be as problematic if it weren't for all the compounding effects of other invasive species
I think this is a problem as old as the world. I was recently reading archives of the Jurassic News from roughly 165 million years ago, and I found a very interesting discussion between dinosaurs of that age. They were discussing how these new flying species, commonly referred to as birds, are a problem because they fly, move at vast distances and spread non-native plants by eating seeds and crapping them miles away.
Isn't that already what "noxious weed" means?
The whole video is worth a watch too.
