I've heard of a few of them tending to go down there but not usually too many of them. Some species of worms do tend to wander more than others though.

Some worms new to their environment will tent to try to look around for something more like what they are used to and escape, this is why they sometimes say to keep a light on when a bin is new to help scare them back down into the bedding. Other situations that can make worms try to escape include; things getting too hot (from compost food scraps, too warm a location or perhaps getting hit by sunlight); too much acidic, salty, oily, citrus, or onion food in the bin at one time; bin being too wet or too dry.

The moisture is usually the key. If you are getting lots of liquid in the bottom (by the way this is leachate and not actually worm casting tea) then you may be adding too much moisture to the bin. The worms really only need things moist like a wrung out sponge and adding food does add quite a lot of water to the bin. People often find that they need to add dry bedding more often than they need to actually moisten what is in the bin.

I also have the Can O Worms system. I am on my first level as well. I always find worms swimming around in the lower level. They seem to be very content there. I just give them a little bedding in one area of the lower lever just in case they need something to munch on. I try to keep the can o worm tilted towards the spigot so as to collect all the moisture in one area. I try to empty it daily. Every so often I will collect the worms and put them back in the first level. My system seem to be working well.

Swimming worms?!?!?

You'll find that that sometimes means the worms doing their duty to make egg capsules.

I've always had rebels who love to live in the muck.

Deanna