If they are the ground dwelling worms. You may have 5-10 stinky dieing worms in your bin a month.

BTW: you have never smelled stinky until you smell dead worms.

Also ground dwelling night crawlers need to get back into their own burrows to do well. They always return to it following the smell. If you move them too far away they generally die.

"they are so big I I have to believe they would be beneficial to my bin."

It's not a size issue. Let me say this again just to be clear: no earthworm of any size is beneficial to a vermicomposting system. This is precisely as true for dogs, fish, or trombones. It doesn't matter how big or small they are, they don't help.

Take for example a freshwater catfish. They clean up the bad stuff in a fish tank. But no matter how big or small they are, they aren't any good at cleaning up a hamster cage. It just isn't the right environment for them. If anything, putting a catfish in a hamster cage makes things worse.

Earthworms need earth - they need soil. You don't want soil in your worm bin, and even if you added a lot (which would be silly) it wouldn't be enough to keep an earthworm alive. They need a lot of it, a lot more than is practical for bin sizing.

Leave the earthworms in the garden. That's where they live, that's where they thrive, and that's where they do you the most good. They don't eat the same stuff as your composting worms anyway. They just can't and won't help your bins in any way, shape, or form.

Hi Folks; I guess its time to get things corrected again before too much missinformation gets going.

First: Lumbriscus terrestris (Lts)(Canadian/North American Nightcrawlers)do not follow smell to their burrows. They keep themselves anchored to the burrow by flatening their tail in the burrow. If they leave the burrow its for good reason (lack of O2) or such. If they don't find cover they become a meal to a preditor of worms.

Second: Earthworms do not live in soil they live in burrows in the soil. If the burrows are perminant they have to forage within reach (their bodys length) of the tunnel for food and a mate. The food (organic matter leaves, grass,weeds) is collected and pulled into the burrow where it is storred into a side tunnel while it decomposes and worm eats it. the worm then comes to the surface to expel its castings which are called middens and are used to cover the burrow opening. Mating ocurres on surface in spring and fall within reach of the burrows. If no mate can be found the worm will move to a new location.

If the burrows are not permanant they litterly eat the soil particals with its mineral and organic content the castings are left in the burrow.
Mating is done whenever a mate can be found in burrows and cocoons are cast in burrow.

As to the misconception that they (Lts)cannot live in a organic decomposing medium that is also not true. They can and do in nature. The only reasons they burrow is for preditor protection and temperature stablization. They prefer the 40-55 deg F temp ranges. That is actually very narrow. Its the reason that they are difficult to propigate in captivity. I have been raising them for a couple of years now and the temp is the only real challenge. I have had them survive in temps as high as 68-70 deg F. They are in styrafoam bins on a concrete floor so the temps change very slowly. I only have ones bred in captivity left because I sold all the really older ones.

So computergardner unless you are willing to chill the red worms and slow them way down it is best to keep the Lts either in a seperate bin or let them compost for you in a natural setting. By the way if you do put some in your bin and reduce the temp the red worms will get a little bigger to compete for the food. Its natures way of balance.