millions of worms

Question
I have a pond and the whole outer rim of the pond is soft and will not dry up.  I looked at it closely and noticed that there are alot and I mean alot of worms in the soil.  The worms come out of the soil a little but as soon as they see movement they go back in.  I dug a little bit of the soil up and there are quit a few worms in it.  They look almost like regular earth worms but they are smaller and very thin.  My pond is almost a quarter of an acre and they are all the way around the rim. They have also made some little mounds around the rim. In some spots the ground is a foot from the edge of the water that the ground is soggy from where the worms have been. What type of worms are they and are they harmful? I have alot of them and the pond is the water source for my house (drinking water). Thank You

Answer
There are many species of worms and many of earthworms.  There are various red worms which are earthworms.  You may just have found a colony of a different kind of red worm/earthworm.  Since they're around the edge of dirt pond, they probably are semi-aquatic.  I'm afraid I don't know enough about the species of worm to tell you exactly what they are.  I doubt that they are harmful in any way.  If the worms are really thin, they might be horsehair worms or something else.  Sorry that I wasn't of much help.  Good luck!

Robyn
fishpondinfo.com