Please Help.................

I will try the newspaper around the edges.

Yesterday I put some powdered limestone into solution in water. About 1 cup to six quarts. I used 2 quarts of solution to each freezer box. Mixed it into the bedding pretty well from down deep to the top. This morning I still had quite a few worms sitting up on top when I opened the door but not as many as has been.

About to the point of putting a small light bulb in each box but I really did not want to have to do that.

I guess I will take a soil sample to the local lab on Monday and see what is going on with the pH. I had hoped the limestone would do the trick.

These worms are not going to beat me!!!

:):):D:D

I was wondering about putting an inexpensive solar light, the kind you might put around the house, in the top of the box to help keep them down.

Okay, a few observations:
Worms need air and lots of it if you have lots of them. I do see the air hole in the top but this configuration might not allow for much air exchange. Kinda of like a sink trap that traps air. I would take the whole thing off and just cover it with some aluminim window screen. I would also add some holes in the sides for better air exchange.

Stir the whole thing. if it was too wet in the lower levels then the wrong processes could be taking place. I think it is anarobic decomp but not positive, might be arobic. Either way, stir it all and stir it well. This will help release trapped gases and help stop the bad processes if any are happening.

Feeding them the chow is fine but throw in powdered egg shells with every feeding. The egg shells give them grit and as AZ said will help control the pH. Be very careful with powdered lime, DO NOT use hydrated lime! It will kill the worms, I hope this isn;t the reaosn that fewer are coming up since you added it. Oh and until you have things under control, coffe grounds might make things worse as they are acidic. If oyu add them throw in some egg shells with them or powdered lime to balance it.

As for over crowding, go fishing with them. As long as you see good numbers and egg capsules there is no reason not to use them. 1000 worms per square foot of surface area, not volume of the container is what is considered proper numbers. If my calculations are right from looking at you freezer that would be about 10K worms. 20K worms in that size bin would be fine as long as you a lot of air movement and exchange. I have 2 small bins, one is a large rubber maid shoe box and the other is an 8 gallon tote. The small one I have about 2000 worms and the large one I have about 5-6000 worms last time I tried to count them anyway, might be a lot more right now.

There may not be enough air getting in through the 3" diam. pipe. I put the two elbows on to keep rain out. I think I will remove them. I don't think enough water would get in even in a hard rain since it is under a tree. If it did it should more or less seep straight down through this bedding and there is a drain in the bottom. I am a little leary of putting holes in the sides. THey would surely all be gone by morning. I may try and put a large hole in the side so I can cover it with something to prevent escape. I am leaving the lid up all day so there should be a lot of air exchange going on. Is there something I can buy to take the place of the eggshells? We don't use enough eggs around here to do any good.

I may want to get away from the worm chow. It seems to mold if they don't eat it right away. When this happens it does seem to generate a bit of heat.
As for stirring I have been keeping it stirred pretty well all the way to the bottom

I don't think the lime I put in hurt them. That was 3 days ago. This morning every worm in both boxes were sitting right underneath the door when I opened it. The gasket is the only thing keeping them in.

I will take a sample to the lab tomorrow and see if I can get an accurate pH reading then go from there.

Thanks for all the help......................we will get there.

David

If your worms are taking the time and all of thier energy to climb up the sides and try to get out,there is something definantly wrong in there.I have to dig for every worm in my bin.I have never seen one on top of the soil or climbing up the sides.

I have had the lid up all day. I let the very top of the soil get fairly dry (top 1/4" or so) and did not sprinkle when I got ready to close for the day. There were a lot of worms just under the surface over most of the bed. I sprinkled a very light feeding before putting the lid down. I have not stirred the bed at all today. I am beginning to think there is something definitely wrong with my bedding that is making them unhappy. Maybe part of the reason the feed has been molding is because the dirt was wet and I have been putting to much on at one time. When they were in the plastic boxes I was giving them a pretty heavy feeding and they nearly always ate it all within 24 hours.

When I take some of them out and hold them in my hand they seem to be healthy and fairly active, of course I don't know what a sick worm looks like unless it has a fishhook stuck through it.

We will get to the bottom of this I feel sure.

THanks

David

Have you done the fistfull of bedding trick yet?

Morning Worm Report

As I stated in my last post

I left the lid up all day yesterday. Temp reached 89 degrees by mid to late afternoon. The bedding was fairly dry for the first 1/4" to 1/2".

I had not fed them for a couple of days so I sprinkled just enough chow so that I could just see that there was some on the dirt

I removed the elbows from my vent system just in case this was causing air flow restriction.

Closed the lid about 6:00pm.

When I went out this morning at 6:00am and raised the lid I was very surprised. There were a total of 6 worms in one box and 12 in the other that were either at the top or going up the sides. Yesterday there were at least 1200 in each box sitting on the "fence".

I am pretty sure that I have been putting to much feed and some of it sours and creates some heat. This morning the feed was all gone in one box and about 95% gone in the other. The bedding was cool to the touch. This may be a combination of the excess feed not being in there to ferment and also the vent is working better. Also, enough moisture had come up from below to dampen the surface. There were a lot of worms just out of sight underneath the surface.

I think I will leave the lid down today and see what happens throughout the day.

I know one day does not prove anything but maybe we are on the way to solving this problem. At least I am happy right now. :D:D

Sounding better.I feed mine every day and they eat everything on top with the Worm Chow.That gives me an indication of how much to feed.I've been doing this for a year now,well almost a year.The times that I fed too much,or was putting Chow from one bag to the other,the Chow got all fuzzy.Now,when I open the lid in the morning,I can hear the worms under the dirt moving around.It's time to get some out and ship them off to the guys that I've been telling that they are coming,lol.Way too many worms.I'm gonna clear out maybe a thousand and ship them off next Monday.A lot of baby ones and they can start thier own.When they are little they get accustomed to thier bins easier.Keep up the good work !!

AZ, remember you have worms that want to eat worm chow and eat on top. Red worms prefer scraps and eating in their bedding.

When my worms try to escape they are looking for food, once I feed them they don't try ot escape shirt of one here and there. Try some vegetable scraps in the bedding and see what happens. They will still eat the dog food but mine very much prefer to have vegetable matter buried in their bedding.


As for side holes, put window screen over them and double it if you have to to make holes small enough so worms can't get out. You may not need them but is an option if they still try to escape in coming days.

If the holes in the otp lets too much water in then put as dish in the bin to catch the water or put one on top supported over the hole to block most of the rain.