It might have gotten too wet for them, or they were too crowded and they died off. Others will also likely suggest other possibilities.

In any case, just wait, and the cocoons present will begin to hatch and you can start again.

I would guess that the combination of "plenty of food" and "a lot of wood chips" started to compost and heated up the bin. Do you have a bin open to the ground so they could escape that way, or is it an enclosed bin? Guess it doesn't really matter ... and in either case, I think that Priswell is right; I would stop feeding the bin, and just let it sit for awhile without disturbing it, and then check again. I bet you'll have a new colony of worms at that point. (Alternative, of course, is to just re-colonize the bin with a new batch of adult worms).

I just saw my first worm there today. Its not too wet, if anything it may have gotten too dry. In the Worms Eat my garbage book, she talks about mites being a problem; has anyone else had this problem? My bin is ALL mites right now! I have a rubbermaid plastic bin with holes all around.

Mites aren't a problem, though they're a little creepy. Their population will fluctuate. If you're seeing new worms appear, I'd start feeding again, small quantities at first.

Did you feed them lots of potato peels? Potato peelings are poisonous to worms. In an outdoor compost pile, worms can escape to eat other garbage, but in an enclosed bin, you could kill off your woms this way. I know from experience that this could be what happened.

hello, how sad,I do know the feeling we do all we can to keep them safe and still we get it all wrong. If your worms were ok until adding the wood chips then the wood chips are the most likely to be your problem. that will not solve things I know,I think I would leave well alone for a few days and let the bin recover which I am sure it will. as for potato peels this is a new one to me I have never had trouble I undestood that our worms would consume just about all things organic the secret is not to much of any one substance at any one time It works for me I could be wrong tho' I wish you well kind regards John

I always get various mites in my systems and they never cause a problem. I use lots of blenderized food scraps which the mites also love, plus I keep my systems slightly on the wetter side which mites also like.

I use potato skins all of the time and have never had a problem with them either. I blenderize just about any type of food scrap, the worms eat it, and I never have a problem.

I would suspect the wood chips, since you never had problems before that. You never mentioned what "type" of wood was added to your bin. Certain woods are not too swift with compost worms. I have used sawdust in experiments with worm bedding and it works very well but it breaks down very slowly. I have used sawdust from oak trees.

Darryl

I have had a lot of red mites lately and what I have observed is that they are very harmful to the worm cocoons. There are almost no cocoons and the ones that are there are small and misshapen as though they have been sucked on or something. Also, I usually have a lot of the small white pot worms in my bins, but since the red mites have arrived there are virtually no white worms.
I haven't really noticed the red mites sucking on my red worms, which is what I have heard that they do, but they could be.
jt

My worms have eaten a lot of potato peels over the years with no ill effects.

Too much of anything all at once can cause problems, whether it's potato peels, wood chips or whatever.

If you get hot composting going on, that can kill your worms. That's my guess as to what happened while you were gone. I would never put wood chips in my bin; I just give them my kitchen waste and that seems to keep them happy.