Try mixing shredded corrugated cardboard in throughout the bedding. It soaks up a lot of moisture and doesn't tend to mat like newspaper does. The corrugations also help get more air in and around the bedding.

I've read in this and other forums that the combination of pulp and glue in corrugated cardboard actually works as great worm food as well as bedding once it starts to get a lot of bacteria and micro-organisms chewing on it.

The white mites are part of the decomposition process and from my understanding do no harm to the worms. They thrive in a moist environment so if you can get it dryer they should get under control. If you have a lot around your bin I've read where some people used a dust buster to suck them up.

I wouldn't start over or try to harvest if you have a good colony of worms in there. I'd try the shredded cardboard and slow down the feeding first.

Hi Rosepetal,
I agree with rom.calgary.ab., there is no need to start over. It sounds like you know what you did wrong and are trying to fix it. You also mentioned that you used "large chunks" of newspaper. That will end up clumping together. If you have a shredder, put the newspaper through that. It makes it the perfect size. Take out most of the food and let the worms eat the newspaper and/or cardboard. They will be fine with just that until you get things under control. Air it out like you were trying to do. Is there any way that you can keep the dog away from it for a while? At least until you get the moisture content correct?

Continue to do what you are doing. It sounds like you are on the right track. Remove the excess food and continue to aerate. If you can find some calcium carbonate, sprinkle that on. That will help to get the Ph under control. Crushed and ground egg shells work too.

Don't harvest for awhile.

Hope this helps and good luck!!
Beth

Lots of comments:

Newspaper is not very good bedding. It works, but cardboard is much better. Newspaper tends to make a mucky mess.

If your bin still smells like moist dirt, it should be fine. I would only be concerned if the bin started to stink.

The mites will not harm the worms. If you stop feeding for a while and let the bin dry out a bit, the mite population will diminish.

You may have overfed, but from your description, you have not done anything harmful to your bin.

I agree about adding shredded cardboard, if you can get any. If not, adding newspaper was probably fine.

Note that in spite of the glue, cardboard has a very high C:N ratio. It is not food, except that everything we put in the bin is eventually eaten.

Stop feeding for a week or two is probably the only thing you really need to do.

Aerating is a tough call. The worms don't like it, but if you have thick, messy, wet clumps of bedding, you might want to break them up.

Don't harvest. Just give the bin time.

I would not remove any food or worry about the pH.

If you're in need of cardboard, go to the grocery store/super market. There are always lots of them and they are glad we help them clear the clutter and reduce their waste.
What I also did when my bin got too wet, I lined the inside walls of the bin with cardboard (corrugated, NOT shredded)with the holes going vertical. Aside from absorbing excess moisture from the sides, it also absorbs from the bottom of the bin and w. the holes going vertical, serves as a wick as well. You can use several layers too if you like and the coarser/bigger the holes the better.
I keep doing it even if the bins are OK.

We have used moist shredded newspaper for awhile and love it as a bedding material. We have not had any problems with it and it has never turned into a "mucky mess". I'm sure that it could if you overwater as would any bedding material. We let our shredded newspaper soak overnight, then we squeeze out the excess moisture, pull it apart and "fluff" it and then add it too the bin. It works perfectly for us.

Beth, do you add a little peat or something from another worm box to get the newspaper set up started? Or just straight newspaper, worms and a few scraps?

Socks12345, We just use newspaper and throw in a few scoops of garden soil. It works great and the worms love it. We will not use peat moss because it is a non-sustainable resource and it goes against our beliefs and our "green business policy". We use large plastic cement mixing tubs. They are about 8"deep and 2'x 3'. We feed at opposite ends each week and they get leftover fruit and vegis and composted horse manure.
Beth

My bins are usually made up of shredded newspaper, cardboard torn into squares and dried leaves. I have a garbage bag of leaves that I collected in the fall. My shredder wouldn't handle cardboard so I tear it up. After a while it gets painful and tedious, otherwise I'd probably use more cardboard in my bins.

Some compost is added to get it all "working".

Those that use shredded cardboard, how do you shred it?

You may not need a lot of cardboard. The leaves are good. It's just good to have some cardboard in the mix to help keep it aerated. I've read of people using a mulching mower to chew up cardboard and then raking it up.

My shredder will usually handle cardboard. It is designed to shred 6 sheets of office paper at once. I have to hand tear the cardboard into smaller pieces to feed it into the shredder, or the shredder jams. How small depends on the thickness of the cardboard, but a 6 inch wide strip of cardboard will usually feed just fine.

Corr. cardboard won't go through my shredder but cereal boxes and similar will go through. I cut corr. cardboards w. a utility knife to managable pieces and use them to line the inside walls of the bins. I find it a good way to absorb moisture from the food and once it got soft and soggy it is easy to rip them to smaller pieces. The worms like to be between the plastic wall and the cardboard, unfortunately so do mites and gnats.

I tear cardboard down to a size that fits in the bin, and then I let the bin take care of the rest. Cardboard doesn't stick around very long, and I don't see the point in doing more work than necessary.

I split off one layer of the corrugated cardboard and run it through my shredder, which handles it fine, even though it has a 3-sheet capacity. If I had a 6-sheet one, I'd run it through as is.

That's a way to do it. Good idea chevere.
Even if you had a 6-sheet one, the slot might not let it through.

If I want to shred very thick cardboard, I use chevere's method. It is a bit of work, but the shredder does the rest quickly.

I leave the cardboard out in the rain and then when it is all soggy I tear it up. It's easy to tear when it's wet. Then I just leave it in a bucket until it dries out some. Seems to work pretty well.
mbetts