It sounds like there's something going on that the worms don't like, and they're trying to escape - pretty desperately, if they're ignoring bright light. I'm a newbie myself, but I don't see anything that jumps out at me as being lethally bad for worms.

Two possibilities come to my mind.

There might be something foul on the tub. Has it ever held anything else but the worm bin? Has it been washed and rinsed thoroughly before being put to this use?

Worms don't much care for vibration, it can disturb them and make them think a predator is coming. Is your worm bin near a washing machine or something like that which could be sending a tremor into the bin?

I woke up today to the same issue. They don't ignore the bright light, they burrow and after a bit of time passes by I put the lid back on and they go back into the closet. Only about 15-20 worms out of 60, give or take, climb to the rim of the tub. They can't actually get out of the worm bin, or so I think.

The tubs did not have anythin' in them previously and there aren't any objects nearby that could cause vibrations in the bin.

Try a thick layer of shredded paper or cardboard on top. And maybe a small amount of soft mushy fruit like from a juicer. Since it is this new it sounds to me like the tub wasn't prepared in advance to be like a compost pile - in short it doesn't feel or smell or taste like home yet. Google 'red worms living material ' to see one guy's approach.

More than once I've heard that worms thrive in conditions of "benevolent neglect" (sometimes without the benevolence, sometimes just straight up forgetting the bin for weeks). It's only natural to want to check on them, whether they're your babies, your friends, or just your investment. But consider the conditions they usually live in: left alone to pig out in peace under soggy leaf litter or a pile of horse manure.

Maybe try to scale back your checking on them to once or twice a day until you're sure there isn't an immediate major problem with the bin, and then reduce it to a few times a week. Know about it and rescue them if they need help, sure, but if not, don't worry so much. They got along just fine without us, and they'll likely fare best that way in the future.

From the sounds of it, they dont have a very hospitable environment. They need some soft material like peat moss or something of that texture. Cover that with your cardboard strips & paper shreads. Over time, the paper materials will break down to be comfortable sleeping quaters.

When you feed, put their groceries under the paper materials. With only 60 or so wigglers, you wont need to feed very much or often.

Itll take them a while to eat and populate their new large homestead. You can put a light over the bed to keep them down, but they are explorers, merely investigating their environment.

worm bodies are highly comprised of water so they need moist conditions but not wet. If its too wet or too dry they will evacuate. Actually thats the first thing to make sure of, the moisture content. I think thats the #1 cause of escape.

Thank you everyone who's commented so far. I'd like to mention that I'm not checkin' on them. I opened the lid just to look for any surface activity when I first noticed the worms tryin' to escape. I also checked the first and second day afew times just to be sure it wasn't gettin' too dry for my red wigglers. When I read about it I started to check just the rim of the bin for worms tryin' to escape and put them back in. I only bother the worms in the beddin' when I uncover areas to put stuff in there to compost.

I did more than a fair bit of readin' before I started this venture, even watched videos, so the enviroment is perfect for them. It's not the beddin'.

I decided to just ignore it yesterday. In fact, I ignored it all the way up 'til just afew minutes ago when I was sweepin'. I found three dried up worms that had escaped. I checked the bin and there were only four visible worms. One on the top of the beddin' doin' it's thing and three on the rim, one of which fell off. They weren't even near eachother. I now know that the worms can indeed escape. I haven't found any more dry corpses yet so that's a plus. I'm goin' to add some dry newspaper shreds as a cover later, just need to go out and get one.

Any other information or tips regardin' raisin' red wigglers is always welcome!

Remember that you are the local apex superpredator, and that your footfalls are much heavier than those of a burrowing vole, or a robin landing to check out a leaf pile. They can hear you. And I've discovered that if things are quiet enough and you pay close attention, you can hear them. It's weird and kind of neat to sit in stillness and listen to the slithering. I've been seriously considering changing my couple times a week checkups to ears only, just to minimize touching the bin and disturbing the worms. Not sure how practical that would be, yet.

I wouldn't stress about looking in or walking near it. Personally I think the positive benefit of benign neglect is not over feeding them. But just an opinion.

in your case I think it's that the bin wasn't prepared in advance. in a different thread about a margarine tub joe above prepared his bin a week before - worth taking a look. The 'living material' approach basically.

I know what you mean by hearin' them, Jon. It's pretty cool!

I don't think that the reason of the attempted escapes are entirely based on not preparin' the bin in advance to addin' the worms. I think it's a 50/50 of poor prep and new enviroment, maybe could have somethin' to do with not havin' a dry beddin' cover to help deter them away from exploration.

Good news! No more attempted escapes! I went to add a dry shredded newspaper/cardboard mix to the top of the beddin' this mornin' and there wasn't one worm in sight! I could hear them wigglin' away though!

Thanks for all of y'all who have commented so far!

Again, any tips or information on raisin' red wigglers is always welcome!

Thanks,

The_Tay

It sounds like the worms and their conditions are starting to adapt to each other, and finding a workable balance point. Give it time, and see what happens.