That's so sad, sorry for the loss of your teeny weeny loved ones Chuckie. Hopefully the survivors will get past through their trauma... but maybe they won't forget. I wonder if that pet psychic can help you in this case, no? Pray, do tell the rest of the story.

Your opening paragraph really got to me - shame on you!
Glad it was only worms (but, I'm sorry for the worms, too)
I immediately thought of a grandchild or pet and didn't want to read the rest.--Now, come on , we want to hear about the survivor rescue!!

bruce

Ok, REALLY now, Bruce, anyone who takes an opening line from a Chuckie post remotely seriously needs a beer and a nap! Of the many things to love about this guy, his michevious nature has got to be near the top of the list.

Ah, Chuckie! We could all lay on the guilt trip, but I truly believe that nothing could punish you worse than the STENCH eminating from a bin of cooked earthworms. I have first hand experience with such not once, but TWICE, so you have a ways to go to achieve my level of guilt!

My story begins way back in the early years of my work with worms when I was the Organic Waste Management Specialist for Clark County Cooperative Extension here in my community. We had set a largish worm bin (4x10) outside beneath the window of my office and that of the 4-H director, who was none to fond of worms and, because she liked to keep her window open (it looked out on the riparian zone of a local stream) concerned that the bin would smell. I, of course, assured her that a well-managed bin produced no odors and that I would certainly manage the system well. That Friday afternoon I proceeded to bed said bin with fresh dairy manure mixed with straw (insert sinister music here), deposit in that bedding 20 pounds of worms, and go home for the weekend.

Monday morning I arrived to an office building so odiferous it could scarce be entered, and an office staff of rather agitated folks wondering what could possibly be causing such a stench and how they were going to function while dealing with it. Never having experienced a worm barbecue before, I did not at that time know what might be the cause, so, while others were exploring for answers, went to check on my new worm bin. At this point the mystery of the Monday morning stink was quickly solved. The combination of fresh dairy solids and straw massed in my largish bin had achieved a temperature of nearly 160 degrees F, and 20 pounds of earthworms were melted on top of the bedding. It was beyond horrible!

It took the smell a few days to fully leave the office, but far longer for the 4-H director to speak to me, let alone consider allowing me to teach vermicomposting to her charges. I bet it was 5 years before I even BEGAN to live this one down! A composting and vermicomposting specialist, and I actually mixed together fresh manure and straw as worm bedding! Even I can't imagine what I was thinking!

My second worm roast was just a few years later. I was speaking at a conference in Florida and had had 5 boxes of different worm species shipped to me for use in a demonstration. I picked them up at the shipping office in my rental car and placed them carefully in the trunk, then went for what should have been a brief lunch meeting. It was a lunch meeting that developed into a lunch/dinner meeting, during which time the 5 boxes of worms remained in the trunk of my rental car. In Florida. In the asphalt parking lot. In the sun. It was during this trip that I learned that such smells as cooked earthworm actually saturate upholstery, and ended up paying a hefty damage fee for the car as the rental agency had to have the interior shampooed to remove the stink. Of course, this did not happen until after I returned the vehicle, meaning I had to drive around for three days in a vehicle permeated with the smell of broiled earthworm.

It is not a smell one quickly forgets.

It is not a smell one would choose to experience.

Now please don't think me callous, as the fact that several thousand earthworms died at my hand in those two events is one I most certainly regret! The lingering punishment of guilt and embarassment, however, can be no more painful than the olfactory torture of over-cooked worm!

So, cry on my shoulder, Chuckie. I most certainly understand!

Kelly S

I feel better now, Kelly, knowing that Kelly Slocum...KELLY SLOCUM!!!, has committed the ultimate worm atrocity too. For those of you who, in a moment of avarice, alzheimer-induced forgetfulness, wanton callousness, or even a desperateness to rid yourselves of your spouses constant complaining that "you care more for the worms than....", well, you know the rest, let me assure you that Kelly speaks the truth about worm decomposition emissions. If you think your worms have gotten beyond life-supporting temperatures, they haven't. If they do, you will KNOW it. You will have no need to post here with questions, for the answer will be all around you....pervasively.

Now, for the survivor retrieval story.

This is not easy for me, but if it will help one wormer out there I will push on with it. The two bins both were about half full with vermicompost (I know, I know, Kelly), bedding, dead and rotting and steaming, odorous glops of formerly healthy, vivacious wigglers mixed with the survivors who each must have felt like the lone walk-away miracle of a major airline crash.

Thru the blurry-eyed, unspeakableness of both remorse and reaction to whatever chemical those lifeless worm bodies (well, they aren't really BODIES, per se...just unrecognizable, wet little pieces of muck), as well as repulsion for the task at hand, I dumped both bins into a big, raised bed being prepped for a fall garden, spread the stink evenly over the top of the bed with a rake, and left the survivors to fend for themselves....until yesterday when, at the insistence of all of my wife, and most of my neighbors, I covered the whole thing with a thin layer of partially composted horse manure. All is returning to normal around here now. Today, I placed a tiny little cross like the ones you see out on the side of the highway in the corner of the bed as a reminder of it all.

For a fleeting moment during all this, I thought about somehow packaging a tiny little amount of the contaminated material in small little tear-open packets, like alka-seltzer, that could be used like smelling salts only a whole lot more effective, or self-defense weapons like skunks, or even against people who deserve it. The idea still appeals to me on a certain, basic level, if you know what I mean. There could be lots of money in it, what with all the revenge-worthy people slinking around up to no good.

Chuckiebtoo

Chuckie,

That was a good story. But, What I was "really" in the mood for, was mouth to mouth resuscitation, pumping on their little chests, something more than just dumping them in the garden and a make it if you can attitude! AND THEN, burying them alive after surviving such a traumatic experience.
I will keep you in mind when I am forced to impale the little innocent victims the next time I go fishing!!

bruce

LOL! Thanks guys, this was a great read.

Sorry about your babies. :(

I finally got my dead fridge worm bin going about 3 weeks ago.

I went through it pulled the seal off. Siliconed the huge holes where some implements were removed from it. Made other holes to allow for air exchange and water to escape. mixed up 16 cu ft of newspaper, cardboard, and old cotton chew toys (my dogs)bedding. Got it all wetted down just right. Then my wife interrupted me to trim a juniper tree. As my compost pile was full I decided it would be a great idea to add the really thin branches and and evergreen "leaves" to my worm bin. I was then reminded that i said i would trim the sumac and elm trees also. Again thinking of varied bedding i added the fresh leaves to the worm bin. Then there was the reminder that i was supposed to dig some potatoes. So i removed the straw mulch, again thinking of my worms i ran over it a few times with a lawn mower, bagged it and added it to the worm bin. Toss in 10-15 shovel fulls of dirt. A brick of coir (already wetted down), and it sounds like the perfect bedding right?

I let it sit a few days in case it decided to cook. The following saturday i sorted out about 2 lbs of my EN's to go back into an experiment and dumped the rest of the bin (mostly finished vermicompost, uneaten food scraps, and 6-8 lbs of worms) into my new and improved worm bin. For the rest of that day and the next day my wife had me work on a remodel project that i started a few years ago. Monday my wife went and dug a pocket to bury some garden scraps, she then came and told me that the new worm bin was hot. As she tends to over react alot I ignored her. Tuesday my father-in-law came over and wanted to see my new bin. The strange odor as i walked into the garage i attributed to the juniper branches i had put in the worm bin. However once i opened the door and felt a sudden rush of heat I realized that i had basically just built a hot compost bin and that instead of creating a bigger bin where the worms would breed in mass, i had just fried about half of my worm population. I dug around in the bin looking for survivors. Since i hadnt found any i used a garden fork to turn over the bottom of the bin to the top. Needless to say my worm bin has been cooking for about 2 weeks now. I have also figured out the secret to a compost pile, try to build a cold pile, and it will heat up.

That is my biggest mass grave site to date.

Bryan

sorry about your worms bdaddawg, but I had to laugh when I read your story.

I can just see you proudly showing your father in law your wonderful worm bin, and the impression it must have made on him! I can only imagine what he would be thinking about the whole vermicomposting thing as he walked away :)

typical that these things happen when someone's around to see it hey?

omg! I'm so sorry Bryan, but like Trance I couldn't help but laugh. Anyhow, congrats on your hot compost pile. :)

I finally had a whiff of that indescribable odor you've all been talking yesterday. There was an inch of leachate on the catch tray, rain must have leaked in. I don't know how smart worms are, but about 200 drowned in that inch of water. It's puzzling why they didn't stay on the dry end of the catch tray. The bin is titled so there's plenty of dry area.

The worm population continues to dwindle the entire month I've had the bin. More than half of the 1000 has died off I think. There's always something happening... as Chuckie phrased it "Tragedy is always lurking". If it wasn't for this forum, I'd be at wit's end. Thank goodness I learned from you all that they can recover pretty well especially since the juveniles adapt better, and I counted at least 200 of them. "The children are the future" fits well. :))

I must confess that my first worm bin also ended in tragedy. The details are still rather painful, but the lesson I learned was not to underestimate the amount of shade a worm bin needs. A spot that was shady in the spring was not in the summer, and on the first warm summer day, a worm holocost resulted. I remember the stench very well.

I was too distraught to start another bin right away, but my DH works with a fellow vermicomposter and told her the sad tale. She sent me a package of little darlings from her bin and that gift cheered me up enough to try again. It's now been about three years and my worms are very happy and always in the shade.