No more goodies? No more warm bin? What do you do with these poor creatures in the fall and winter?
Maybe they're still trying to gain back their strength from last winter and don't have it in them yet to hop on the sin wagon.
I say keep feeding them year round and then maybe try some Barry White.

My worms are just trying to avoid all the new stuff I put in. I put in too much and it heated up.

Dopey me. I am sure they will go back to being cherry pickers when it cools. But you are right, with the pick of the season to choose from, even the bedding isn't getting much attention, they are curling up in the watermelon and chilling out. You can almost hear them humming "Summer time, when the livin' is eeeasyy..."

Equinox, I think you probably do have some cocoons in there. They're really small, at least the one I found in my 3 month old bin. They didn't look like the tip of a pencil eraser that I've seen them compared to, they were much smaller.

I did make the mistake of putting some uneaten corn kernels in the bins and they look just like cocoons, I'll never add corn again!

Tip of a pencil eraser? I've never seen one remotely that large. Nor a worm with a lump in it's clitellum that size. Little white to yellow bubbles, 1/8" - 3/16" is what I see.

i'd like to see the worm coming out of a cocoon the size of a pencil eraser. The big ones I see are about the size of the diameter of a grain of rice, round and usually yellow to tan. I can not see them under normal indoor lights. I have to see them outside in daylight. For some reason the brighter light makes them stand out.

Hi All; All the cocoons I have ever seen were the size and shape of grape seeds. Some a little smaller on average.

I do find that my worms don't seem to be eating much of the bedding in my rubbermaid container. I have a ton on the melon rinds I put in. Lots a little worms all over the melons but a lot of the newspaper I put in seems fairly untouched.

My second container only got cardboard and egg cartons and it seems like those are breaking down a bit better. I've noticed that it takes them a lot longer to go after the melons in that container versus the rubbermaid.

EQ, maybe things will work out.
I have a theory that the reason why your worms are not mating is because you are too good of a worm keeper.
Worms mate like crazy when they are stressed. They have crazy we-are-all-gonna-die-anyway-so-let-make-whoopee sex when they are on the brink of disaster.
I am a terrible worm keeper, constantly exposing my worms to hot compost, cold temps, onions, lime peels, too damp, too dry, bits of meat, colored inks, magazine pages, rampaging robins, tipping bins, marauding raccoons and now dolomite. They must be throwing off cocoons like mad expecting the world to end any second now.

You, on the other hand, keep your bin right, and your worms know it. They have no reason to worry. They have watermelon to spare, perfectly moist, wonderfully consistent conditions. They have no reason at all to make babies. After all, babies are just noisy little buggers that disrupt the perfect harmony of a well-adjusted life of eating and pooping.

I have gazillions of worms (I know this, because I counted them), and keep having to make new bins to hold them all. Because I am a terrible worm keeper, and the worms know it.

You are not a worm grandparent, because you are a terrific worm keeper, and the worms know it. They have a good thing and are not going to let some little rugrat new kids screw it up.

Just my theory.

Hmmm, the theory of a lousy worm keeper might be right. I know I got a ton of cocoons shortly before killing most of my first batch of worms. Most of the cocoons have hatched and I have a ton of baby and young worms in my bin. Still waiting for them to eat more of the paper in the system. I have two large boxes full of carbon materials for them. My Mother-in-law has been sending me her old TP rolls sine you can't recycle them in our area.

Hmmm, the theory of a lousy worm keeper might be right. I know I got a ton of cocoons shortly before killing most of my first batch of worms. Most of the cocoons have hatched and I have a ton of baby and young worms in my bin. Still waiting for them to eat more of the paper in the system. I have two large boxes full of carbon materials for them. My Mother-in-law has been sending me her old TP rolls sine you can't recycle them in our area.

Why can't you recycle TP rolls?
Weird.

Our area only takes corrugated cardboard. They won't take any other forms including TP and paper towel rolls.

We only have brown corrugated cardboard and newspaper and office paper, none of which I need to recycle except for every now and then when I get too big of a backlog.

I need them to take junk mail and paper food boxes!