I am not familiar with the compost tower, specifically, but...

Yes, rescue the worms. Otherwise they will eventually drown. Clean out the dirt too. Otherwise, the drainage will get plugged up. This is not supposed to be a collection area for castings, but some castings will fall though into the drainage area.

I would have the worms e-mail Uncle Jim about their desperate situation.

A piece of weed barrier cloth (or any other porous, synthetic cloth) placed over the leachate tray overlapping the edge and below the first compost tray and will stop the worms from gettign all the way down, and give them an easy way to climb up again.

I used a couple of newspaper layers on the first bin along with a good layer of shredded paper for bedding. I placed the scraps and moisture on the 2nd layer to help draw the worms upwards and not into the tea tray. Yes, I still lost a few worms in the initial growth period. ( just added a strong worm tea in the end though.) I run (2) 7 tier set ups and do not have too much of an issue during my rotation of bins with the worms going into the tea tray after things got equalised.

thanks for the great info! I didn't want to kill the worms straight off, and you all answered my question.....and quickly! Thank you! PS...equinox, "emailing" uncle jim is amusing, but overall a silly answer worthy of my 13 year old. I'll send it on to him and I know he'll enjoy it, so thanks to you too! :-)

I was just surprised that Uncle Jim who sells and profits from bin sales did not include the information cathd66 shared for free on maybe a single sheet of copied paper. It would seem to be basic instructions that should be provided by anyone selling any type of system with a "basement". Especially since the well informed and experienced information providers have probably been raising worms for years less than Uncle Jim has been selling bins. Maybe Uncle Jim should read up on the subject for a half hour or so. The question you needed an answer to because Jim left you short comes up all the time from people who purchase similar types of products.

"Yo Jim and other system sellers wake up and smell the coffee. The worms are drowning in the lechette."

Would sprinkling acidophilus on the worm food start decomposing faster?
Has anybody tried this? Please comment. Thx.

Sorry, I meant to start a new thread but got it here instead.
Don't know how to move it so I just try again.
My apologies folks.