Over the last few decades, it has been shown that exotic earthworms have colonized forest soils in several parts of North America. To date, the more acidic soils and a harsher climate may have prevented their invasion of certain northern hardwood stands. Climatic change and the increasing use of liming to counter sugar maple dieback could, however, make these sites more vulnerable to colonization. Field and laboratory experiments were conducted to evaluate the survival and reproduction of 3 exotic earthworm species in unamended and lime-amended acidic soil from a sugar maple stand located at the northern limit of the distribution range of the northern hardwood forest in Québec. Liming positively improved those soil parameters beneficial to earthworms, and consequently increased the level of activity, survival and reproductive output of Aporrectodea caliginosa and Lumbricus terrestris, 2 European species established in North America. By contrast, although the high acidity (pH ~ 4) of the untreated soil did not appear to limit A. caliginosa, it was not suitable for L. terrestris. Finally, even though Amynthas hawayanus, an Asian species established in the United States, was very active during the summer and fall, irrespective of whether the soil was amended or not, it was not able to complete its life cycle before the onset of winter. In light of these findings, it seems likely that over the coming decades some earthworm species, such as A. caliginosa and L. terrestris, may colonize limed sugar maple stands. According to recent studies, this could negatively affect the ecological integrity of the affected stands.