How wet is it? What kind of food are you adding? What kind of bedding are you using? What kind of water are you using?

It's also extremely important that the worms get air as well. Does the bin have enough ventilation?

The wooden bin has at least 12 1/2'' ventilation holes, and is well ventilated.
most of the bedding, 90%- is like a wrung-out sponge, with a few pockets on the dry side and few small pockets a little more on the damp side. It seems fine.
Since I didn't start out with a lot of worms, (2nd attempt)
Ive been trying to feed very sparingly-mostly some coffee and tea bags with a little egg shell and wilted lettuce, sometime sprinkled with a little corn meal. I have only had to sprinlke rain water on a little of the bedding once or twice to keep some dry spots moist.

Could too much coffee and tea grounds make it too acidic? Or do you just have to say the right magic words or something?

I'm thinking the problem may be not enough worms for your second attempt. The worms can and do live off the bedding without any food being added. Really, all they (the worms) need is bedding, moisture, and air. Unless they crawl out of those 1/2" holes, I don't know where they could go.

Are there none left? Or just a few who are lifeless?
Could they mostly be in a feeding ball?

Have you tried putting in a chunk of watermelon or pineapple to draw them up?
Don't give up yet!

It looks like only about half the worms I started with are still there, Im just guessing, and half of those left don't look bad, they just don't move around
hardly at all.
In the first plastic bin i tried, they all disappeared except for a couple---where did they go I was really curious about, since there was no evidence of escaped worms and it didnt stink like a worm massacre.

some parts of my bin seem dry on looking at it again, so maybe that watermelon is a good thing to try. I know more worms will be necessary to really get going eating up scraps in a reasonable amount of time, but Im not sure why it s hard to keep less than 500 happy to start with.

A worm bin is an interesting little system, so I won't give up yet...thanks for
your ideas.

Worms collected in the wild may not be composting worms. In my compost piles the only worms I can find are soil dwelling night crawlers.

Yea it seems like you did everything right, it might just be your worms. I got my worms from an old horse manure pile, you usually can't find them in normal backyard compost piles. Though I do have a ton of Eisenias now since I threw some horse manure into that pile...the eggs must have hatched or something

Most worms that you find outside won't do well in a compost bin. They like to burrow into the ground and only come up when they feed or when they're forced up by rain. Red worms don't burrow they live near the surface, thats why they do well in confined space. This link will help you figure out what species you have. http://www.naturewatch.ca/english/wormwatch/resources/key/index.html
Did you use worms from the garden on your first attempt also?

My first attempt was definitely with red wigglers I got via mail order.
I did assume all those worms in my outdoor compost pile, which had decayed manure and grass clippings and all, would be red wigglers, but I guess that may not be right. Thanks for the link to try and verify what they are.

In my opinion, I think they are starving to death. Yes, the bedding is food for them, yada yada yada, but I think they need some food. Some coffee grounds and a piece of lettuce isn't going to cut it. If you don't eat much fruit or veggies, do you have any friends or family members that do? Any time I go to a family get together, I take home produce that is going bad in their frig (with their permission). If someone at work is eating a banana at lunch, I ask if I can have their banana peel. I explain that I compost, I don't go into the whole worm thing. Some grocery stores will give you produce that is going bad and they're going to throw away. Going to a picnic? Take a couple gallon ziploc bags and put the watermelon and cantaloupe rinds in it to take home, along with any leftover veggies from veggie trays. After Halloween, ask your neighbors if you can have their pumpkins when they're ready to throw them away. Cut them up and put them in your freezer for worm food. Worms LOVE pumpkin.

Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. I started out with one worm bin, and now have 6.

Deanna

Unless I missed it, the temperature was never mentioned. That is important. Soil or compost thermometers come in handy for this.

Wild worms sometimes just don't adapt to new conditions. At least, that is what I've read. That being said, my wild worms did better than the ones I ordered. I find written "info" to often be contradictory to real life experience, though.

Drastic changes in barometric pressure have been blamed as a potential reason for mass die off in worm farms. I don't get it, but that is the claim. One guy lost nearly his entire worm farm and if I remember right he has the biggest in GA.

Used coffee grounds aren't that acidic. They are acidic, but only in that 6 is acidic. That's fine for worm food. Kitchen scraps are normally more acidic than grounds after they start to decompose. A little lime can balance the pH. Do a pH test on your medium. Use a soil pH test kit.

Deanna, that's a great idea with the collecting of pumpkins. Hadn't thought about that. The neighbors already think I'm odd for collecting their leaves. . .

"The neighbors already think I'm odd for collecting their leaves. . . "

We won't even go into all my odd behaviors, and what the neighbors possibly think about them. They've stopped asking - they know if I'm doing anything strange, it's most likely gardening related. However, they really like my plants!!

Deanna