Worms that perish quickly become compost. It's almost impossible to predict what went wrong, especially since the night crawlers continue to do well. It may simply be the stress of shipping combined with the shock of the new environment - it is fairly common for newly received herds to fail.

Wouldn't that many dead worms cause a big stink?

no stink, there's plenty of decomposer bacteria in an active worm bin, and worms are mostly water anyway

I'd think smoke's situation may have been a result of the different worm types needing different environments, and the reds didn't like it, either died or fled

Bill

Thanks for your help. I will wait a few days to see if the worms I save will make it in their new bed. If they do I'll buy some more. I don't know if I should use the same dealer. Who do you buy your worms from? Thanks again for your help.

Worms that are put in a bin that they are not used to sometimes just get up and run away. Is your situation where they can crawl away? Sometimes they just want to go home. Keeping them in a lighted area for a couple of days will help prevent that from happening again if that was the problem.

The worms ddn't leave their bin. I've only had 3 night crawlers get out. Since the night crawlers were so active and none of them tried to escape I thought everything was fine till I realized so many had died. Who did you buy your worms from?