While generally lauded as beneficial for soil health, many earthworm species in North Carolina (NC) are not native and some are highly destructive. One of the most infamous groups is the Asian jumping worm (Megascolecidae), locally known as ‘snake worms’ or ‘Alabama jumpers.’ Unlike endemic burrowing earthworms, these worms live at the soil surface where they consume enormous quantities of leaf litter from the forest floor. This behavior disrupts ecosystems, leaving barren landscapes of castings in place of detritus, likely eliminating key habitat for other organisms including endemic and endangered animals, plants, and fungi and altering soil carbon and nutrient cycles. Asian jumping worms are a threat to NC forests; however, little is known about the extent of their impact. Here, we take the first steps to address this gap and assess Asian jumping worms’ effects on forest soils and their biodiversity. Our long-term goal is to develop this project into a series of externally funded projects involving multiple undergraduate and graduate students.