Worms Lethargic and disappearing

15 years ago

I have a bin with cinder block bottom and one foot sides that was to be our compost heap, but a friend gave me a small pail containing some red garbage eating worms, so we put them in the bin along with our vegetable and fruit scraps and covered it all with dried maple leaves and dried lawn clippings. Every week or so I would bring them things like old cantaloupe rinds and they seemed to really appreciate all of the garbage and the worm colony grew.

Lately the worms that are left seem to be somewhat lethargic and their numbers have shrunk to a small number. There is a large evergreen that shades the bin, but also drops some needles into the bin. The soil in the bin is somewhat moist cool and crumbly, but not really damp. When I feed them, I sweep back the grass and leaves, uncover some of the worms, add the garbage, cover with a little dirt and replace the dried grass and leaves.

Could it be too dry for them?

Could the evergreen needles be a problem?

A few weeks back before they began disappearing I put a large chunk of stale home-made bread in the with their food but when I checked it later, a colony of small ants was making a colony in the bread, so I removed the bread.

If anyone has any ideas why they have gone missing please let me know.

Thanks!

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Comments (2)

plumiebear
15 years ago
sharpdog, some questions:
* what are the dimensions of your bin? how many ftÃÂ²?
* what's the temperature range these days in So. Oregon?
* roughly how many measuring cups of worms did you start with and how long have you had them?
* when did they start to look lethargic?

I'm going to assume you checked the bin thoroughly. They sometimes gather in a particular spot if that happens to be the safest place for them for some reason. E. fetida (red wigglers) usually won't leave a slightly dry or acidic (evergreen needles are fine) bin environment. They will leave if it gets too hot. Bread mixed in with food could get hot, but if there's room in the bin, they'll just stay away from the bread instead of escaping the bin entirely. Same with dryish conditions. Usually bin material tends to be more damp towards the bottom. If the top part is dry, they move down to where it's wet. If it gets very dry, the tendency is for them to gather into a ball and go slightly dormant. If you've been adding melon rinds, etc., it's unlikely things got too dry in there.

Those are initial guesses. The answers to the questions above would help further troubleshooting efforts.

Cheers,
Andrew
mendopete
15 years ago
I live in coastal northern Ca. and my worms slow down now (fall) unless I water or feed lots of wet food. I use no bottom to my outdoor bins, Hope this helps.
Pete
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