Hello sarah,

leave the carpet on top of your bin. Is it possible to position it in a way so it doesn't cover the entire surface of the bin. There might be lots of cocoons in it too. Maybe cut the carpet in 2 and put the pieces to 1 side.
Add dry shredded newspaper and pieces of cardboard to soak excess moisture.

I don't know how bad your mite infestation is and how much worms you've got in your bin but I would try everything else before starting over. Wiping off the mites and dispose of them will help reduce their population and once the moisture level is down, so do the mites. And you might want to hold back on the feeding too because of the water it contains.

Otis

Thank you Otis,

I bought a larger bin, drilled holes in the top and bottom, propped it up on 4 bricks for circulation sake, cut the carpet in 3 pieces (I warned the worms to evacuate before yielding the scissors, hopefully- for the sake of my karma they listened) and mixed in shredded news paper, some dry leaves and a bit of straw. This should dry it out- although it wasn't as wet at the bottom as I had expected it to be.

I've read that mites are normal in a worm bin, at least until they stress the worms. I'm not sure if mine are stressed, as I've never met a stressed worm, but they did seem to be in 'balls', which I've read is the behavior of a stressed worm.

In the case that I fail to completely rid the bin of mites,is the infested compost dangerous to use in my gardens? Also, I'm assuming that dumping the whole lot of it into my outdoor compost (non worm compost) would spread the mites to it also. Will the mites harm plants?

Oh, if you don't mind dumping it outdoors then it is OK. And in the outdoor CP there is all kinds of mites anyway.
As an indoor wormbin, I pay more attention to it because the bin is relatively small compared to an outdoor pile and the impact of something minor outdoors can be fatal for an indoor bin.
Good luck.

Otis.