I don't think spraying with water is a good idea. The bin is going to be hot whether you water it or not, and the water will be harmful to the worms. You need to find a place for the bin that is cooler, like a basement, garage, laundry, or somewhere like that.

Marshall

I've read of some people adding frozen foodstock to cool the bin, which wouldn't add more water than otherwise.

The top is drying out...what's the moisture level further down?

I have some beds in a greenhouse where the temp get over a hundred every day. The beds are big from 55 gal to 300 gal. and I have thermometers in them to keep tabs on them. The temps inside the beds never go over 80*F. I have good drain holes in them and open tops. I wet the down with a hose every day to keep the overall beds damp to help with the cooling process. The top in. or two are usually dry when I go to water them. When I scoop out a handfull of bedding it is damp about 3 in down. That is where you first encounter worms during the hot weather. Of course none of this applies to the plastic can o worms as they absorb heat and are not ventilated well enough to help with the cooling and the beds are not deep enough for the worms to go down to the cool areas. I don't like them at all. Of course I am not vermicomposting I am just raising red wigglers.

I use a trick my dad used with the dogs water bowl. When I empty a pop or other drink bottle, I fill it with water and freeze it. I keep a couple around so I don't have to worry about forgeting to re-freeze one.

Cooler weather has arrived and I don't see any evidence of dead worms. We will certainly get more very hot weather, so I think I need to come up with a plan for the next round.

I had hoped that the deep shade in the back yard would be cool enough, but I don't think so...

eggle - The frozen bottle is an interesting idea. Do you put one in each day? Where in the bin? Is it enough to cool the whole bin? How do the worms react?

Betty

Just a thought but is the bin black or a dark color that absorbs heat? Paint it white. Those multiple tray things did not have enough ventilation to handle anything but cool temps.

Hi Betty heres a trick you can use to cool the COW. Get a piece of burlap to go around the COW and soak it hang it on the outside of the COW the evapotation process will cool the air under and around the sides of the COW 10-20 degrees. The air intake is in the legs of the COW and thermal convection will draw the cooler air up into the COW. Make it so it goes from the ground to the lid lip. Paper clips fashioned into little hooks will work to hang it on the COW. Wrap it completely around the COW. If you keep the top off you will need to check and keep the burlap wet. This will increase the humidity in the COW but if its dry the bedding will not dry out as quickly and the surface will be cooler. Pick up a little thermometer at Walley World with a short probe and check bedding temp. 80 deg F or less and the worms will be fine. This method of cooling is called swamp cooling and was used before the present day air conditioners. I think its still in use in some places today.

My bin is just an old coffee table storage box that I made a few years ago. They are outside under the shade of a tree, but on days that they say the weather will get above 90 I place one of my frozen bottles in the center on top of the soil. As it gets hotter, I may get bigger bottles or use two of the smaller ones that I am using now, and just place one on each side of the bin.

I figure that it would cool off the surface area around the bottle and cool the air a little bit more. I work at night, so I can add the bottles around noon, so I don't waste them during the cooler morning hours. The worms seem fine. find them all over the bin, even on the dryer side without the food. I figure they'll figure out were to go to stay cool, or warm in the bin. I don't have a basement, but I do have a crawlspace and the bin sits infront of a vent to the crawlspace. Its cooler under there, so the wooden box can cool down from the cooler air coming from under the house also.

I just built my first bin. It is rather large (2foot by 4foot and pretty deep too.) It is made of wood and up on legs. We placed it in an old unused kennel to protect it from sun and heavy rain but it still gets plenty of air.

We are in Central FL and the local worm grower said they use frozen 2 liter bottles to cool their bins of this size just rotating the bottles each day during really hot weather.

Deeper beds help a lot, especially loose ones that let the worms go down when they need to. If food is heating up quit feeding them for a while. Worms will eat the bedding and be just as happy. Especially cardboard and newspaper strips, I have beds that have not had food for over a year and they are just as happy.

I have COW too. I had a massive die-off (half my worms about 1,000) during the first heat wave of 100 in the shade. Here's what I do now: put lots of damp crumpled newspaper in the bottom tray (if it's empty) or in the collector tray. This is suicide prevention for if/when they go down to escape heat. Lots of damp newspaper strips on top of the garbage/worms. Lid off. Wet old sheet over the bin, which cools down the temperature I think. i also don't add new garbage during heat waves of 80+. So far so good. Be sure that your suicide prevention layer doesn't cover the vent holes in the legs.