If you have baby worms the system will recover in time. Worms do escape from time to time, a few, without there being any bin problem. In this case you did have a problem. I don't think the dry bedding at the bottom was the problem, they simply move to where things are wetter if there is a place where things are wetter. It sounds like there is something toxic to the worms or the entire bin was just to dry. What type of food are they getting besides the compost and is it wet or dry? If everything you add is dry you must monitor and add moisture regularly. I'm not sure the linseed oil is a good or bad idea. I'm sure someone will read this and comment about that.

Thanks for your response!

Hmmm.. I was convinced that the only thing that could have been killing them was the dryness. But I only noticed a problem after I fed them avocado peel. I was afraid that that might have been a bad idea but I've never heard anyone say that it is toxic to the worms. Most of the other compost I feed them includes tea bags, banana peel, egg shells, cucumber peel and the odd other thing. All the food is frozen ahead of time to kill fruit fly eggs (as recommended by the worm breeder). The food is moist when I put it in.

Would avocado make them sick? I know it has a very high fat content which might not be good for them. Regardless, they are never getting avocado again, just in case.

I'm also thinking that the 'baby worms' may have been pot worms... so I'm not getting too optimistic yet.

Cathy

Cathy,

Small amounts of avocado shouldn't bother them. If you're scooping out the skin and putting it in there then that shouldn't be enough oil to be a problem.

The fact that the newspaper at the bottom was dry is a warning sign. Generally speaking the bottom of a worm bin is the wettest part, because water tends to seep downward. So if the bottom is dry then chances are the whole bin is too dry.

Wooden bins are prone to drying out, because the wood is porous enough to let water evaporate. Plastic bins have the opposite problem: water can collect in them if you're not careful. With a wooden bin you should always wet your fresh bedding before you add it, and keep an eye on the moisture levels. (Just check it by feel every time you add food.) If it gets dry you can add wet bedding or just soak the surface with a spray bottle.

As long as you have some adult worms, there's still a fair chance that the population will recover. However you won't be able to feet them as much while that's happening. Depending on how patient you are, you might want to order some more adults to re-seed your bin.

Yeah, I'm fairly convinced it was a dryness issue. Most of what I've read about vermicompost problems was related to the bin being too moist and acidic, so I wanted to avoid that problem and ended up at the opposite extreme. I guess most people have plastic bins so I should have been focusing on what often happens with wooden bins. Well, I've learned my lesson I guess.

The unfortunate part is that I wanted to have the compost ready to harvest by June so I could fertilize my garden but at this current population level it looks like that won't happen. If I decide to order more worms I'll either have to wait until it gets warmer out or take another long drive to the city.

Do people ever harvest part of their compost before the whole bin is finished to use as fertilizer? In that case I might have enough to use in 2 months if I can maintain the current worm population.

Thanks a lot for your advice!

Cathy