I get heating in my bin as well from time to time...but since I pocket feed I figure the worms will find a cool place to hang out in the bin until the heated feeding cools off.

I've been meaning to ask how to avoid heating:)

My only suggestion would be to push the heated food over to one side so that there is more room for the worms to get away from it and wait for it to cool.

Cass:)

Add more bedding material!

hi shen, I would move the hot bedding aside and put some fresh bedding in (minus coffee grounds) on one side so they have somewhere to escape until things cool down. good luck!

Yup, more browns/bedding, off in a cool spot/side/corner. If you can remove some of the "hot" compost (about half would be ideal, but any will do) to another bin or bucket, or spread it out on your garden, that will help disspate the reaction.

Moving the bin to a cooler spot, or adding ice cubes, or frozen moistened bedding, should help too.

- Evelyn

OK, thanks all!

I added more newspaper and churned things up. Its definately cooler this morning. It appears that most of my worms just dove like submarines beneath the hot areas and appear to be all right.

The guys at the office have been drinking more coffee than usual recently. My mistake was trying to force the worm bin to keep up. Lesson learned.

All right. I've called muster, and most or all of my worms are present and accounted for. Now that the crisis has passed, a follow up question. I'll try to make it coherant:

Are the microbes that cause the thermal reaction in the bin the same ones that the worms eat?

If so, it would seem that as long as I keep a large escape area in place for my worms, I'm getting a rapid infusion of good vittles for the guys when the bin gets hot.

If not, then I should avoid heating up any area of the bin. (Unless it is part of a series of decomposition steps necessary for the process.)

In short, as far as my worms are concerned, was Nietzsche correct? That which does not kill me, makes me stronger.

A little vermiphilosophy question, with practical overtones... :)

You should try to avoid heating as it is not good for the worms even if most survive. it can do damage such as killing egg capsules. Try to set a balance where they consume most of what you put in before you add more. If the material is such that it will heat up pre-compost it.