I see no one had posted yet, so I'll start.

35-40 degrees at night seems a little cool--what is the day-time temperature?

I think your sow-bug problem is directly related to your wetness problem.

I would mix in some dry shredded newspaper to help absorb excess moisture. Stop feeding until the worms can catch up with the food already in there.

Try vacuuming up the flies so you can leave the lid off for short periods of time to help with the drying process.

For items that take a long time to be consumed, try chopping them up into small chunks.

Hopefully someone else will be along soon with more suggestions.

Hi, thanks for the suggestions. The daytime temperatures have been pretty low, maybe in the high forties or low fifties, but now they're up to seventy, which is what inspired me to see what was going on in there. I think maybe the worms weren't able to keep up with the food I was putting in over the winter months.

Is it better if I run newspaper through the shredder to get really small strips? Also, should I mix it into all the levels, including the more finished layers, or just the newest, and will that make the bin get hot? I added some shredded credit card offers this morning, but I just spread them on top because I wasn't sure about mixing.

Also I was thinking about that lowest tray that is full of red worms and white angelhair-like worms and looks pretty dirt-like (though wet)--maybe it's not totally finished because there are so many things still clearly enjoying it? I moved that layer up to the top in hopes it would dry faster and get finished. I'm not adding any more food for now.

Sounds like you're on the right track. Worms do their best work at around 72 degrees F. When the temperatures drop to the 40's, the worms aren't nearly as active and don't eat much.

The COW is designed to fill one tray completely before adding the next tray. You should continue to add food stuff and bedding to that one tray until the compost is up to the ribs on the inside of the tray. The foodstuff and bedding settles/decomposes fairly quickly, allowing one bin to be used for quite a while--depending on how many worms you have. When the worm compost is up to the ribs of that tray, it is time to add the next tray. Worms cannot jump--they need to be able to climb up into that next tray.

By the time you have filled the third/top tray, the bottom tray should be ready to harvest. When you've harvested/emptied that bottom tray, place it on the top and begin the process again.

When you add food to the bin, always cover it with a couple of inches of shredded newspaper. It will not make it too hot--it will actually help moderate the temperature. I run my newspaper through a shredder, but you can just tear it into strips if you want bigger strips.

The white angelhair-like worms could either be pot worms (which are good for your bin) or baby earthworms. Everything I read on these forums say they are pot worms, but I don't know....When I got my first earthworms, I got almost all babies. They looked like little white pieces of thread. It took 2-3 months before they looked like earthworms.

If your lowest tray looks pretty-much finished, I would call it good and harvest it. I harvest my bins by hand. I pick out all the worms I can and put them back in the bin, along with any unprocessed food scraps or bedding.

I put the finished compost (which is also usually wet) in a 5 gallon bucket. Every now and then I rummage around in the bucket for the worms and hatchlings I missed before.

Using this method, and after the bucket sat in my garage for about 4 months, I have the most beautiful worm compost I have ever had. It has dried out enough to be easily siftable, but is not too dry. It is perfect.

This is what works for me. Others no doubt have different ideas and suggestions. I am really surprised that no one else has posted here yet.

Good luck, and happy worming!

Before I saw your response I went and added shredded paper to each of my layers, because I saw this tutorial on The Garden Forums. I somehow thought that you weren't supposed to add bedding to the COW but now I feel like I am making up for lost time, and my two lower bins had deflated to the point where I think worms weren't able to get to the new food.

In the past I have done one harvest where the bottom layer was all compost, which I took out and then had a new empty top bin, but I think something got off track over the winter because now I have three trays and I kind of think none of them is all the way done.

I figured out that my sow bugs are actually Black Soldier Fly larvae. I wasn't too pleased with them as sow bugs, but I'm even less happy now that they're thousands and thousands of maggots. At least they've been eating the compost though.

I will just wait and check every week or so to see how the worms are doing on what they have and if it is getting any drier in any of my trays. Checking my worm bin was not that much fun over the winter because of fruit flies and the aforementioned squirming squelching heaving mass of BSF larvae, but I guess if I don't keep an eye on it I will never get it back to normal. Thanks for the advice!

lyrarain...I am going to guess the tutorial you saw on Garden Forums was mine. I have about 10 COWs and that tutorial is the way I set it up and have great success.
It sounds to me that you added trays too quickly. A new tray should be added when the compost in the working tray is above the little notches inside the working tray. They absolutely do need bedding. I use newspaper and my junk mail, shredded with a long strip-cut paper shredder.
Those Black Soldier Fly larvae are great composters, as the can eat massive amounts of raw organics. They are a signal that too much food is in that bin sitting there. They can also make your bin even wetter as their manure is very wet. (It is a good food source for you worms.) Those little white worms are most likely pot worms. Baby worms get pink quickly. Pot worms like wet, acidic conditions. Fruitflies are on some of the peels of fruit put in your bin. When it sits there too long they hatch out.
If it were me, I would get some kind of plastic tote with ventilation holes drilled in it. I would put some of the compost, about 2-3", back in one of the COW trays. Collect as many worm as you can and add them to the COW. Add some food to 1/2 of the working tray, and cover with a good 3" layer of shredded paper. Wait until that new food starts to disappear and then add some food to the other half.
Leave that other tote bin unfed, but check it once in a while to see what happens.
If you would like to email me, find my contact info at: redhenenterprises.net and I will be happy to try to help.