I'm not familiar with the stackable worm bins but I will say that if worms are escaping and its a totally new bin (meaning no bedding from an established bin has been added) then this is a natural (very common) response in the initial stages of bin development where all the bedding is new and yet to be fully inoculated with the microbiology that feeds the worms... add to that that the pH and composition of the new bedding is likely to be quite different from the environment the worms came from and they will need time to adjust so some will inevitably instead just wander off looking for more hospitable digs.

After the first couple weeks of establishing a new bin, any worm migrations are a sign there is likely something wrong with the bin conditions... usually tied to overfeeding. Strong light is quite effective at stemming all escape attempts... but in the longer run you'll likely need to address bin conditions to prevent mass migrations and deaths.

How many worms did you start with? If you started with 1000 and you see say 30 worms laying dead on the floor, this can seem like a heck of a lot of worms but in the larger picture this is really only 3% which is a small amount to lose when starting up a totally new bin for the first time. If you make sure to strongly light all the escape routes 24 hours a day, there will be no more escapes... however I suggest you assess the bin conditions as well. What did you use for bedding? How much and what are you feeding?

Hi,

thanks for the response. I started with moistened coconut fibre which came with the bin over a bedding of newspaper, along with some special mineral pellets. After that I've been fairly conservative with feeding them, but have added a little bit of mixed food scraps along with moistened cardboard, broken down into a mush.
I started with 1000 worms, so I'm aware that there are still plenty inside, and I have seen some baby ones in there, but there just seem to be a lot escaping every day, and today there were about 50 in the bottom chamber with the juice...
How can I check the conditions inside the bin to figure out what might be making them unhappy?

Two different things. (1) Worms crawling all the way out of the bin and on to the floor and dying there. (2) Worms hanging out in the "basement" bottom drainage tray.

The first may happen with a few worms when a new bin is started but should not be happening on an ongoing basis. Are they still crawling out onto the floor?

The second is totally normal, happens all the time, will go on happening even when nothing is wrong. I wish the worm bin instructions would be more clear about this. Worms wander into the bottom drainage tray because it is a normal behavior for them to explore as far as they can within the bin as long as it's dark and moist. They don't know they're not "supposed" to go down there. There is no harm in them going down there as long as there is not a deep lake of leachate in which they are drowning. Any leachate should be drained out of the bottom tray as much as possible. Many of us put some bedding down in the bottom to absorb extra run-off.

I find that over time very wet worm castings accumulate in the bottom drainage tray. When I change the trays, I scoop out the worms and wet stuff from the bottom drainage tray, set the wet mess aside in a bucket, then add it back to the very top of the new tray on top, on top of dry bedding. That way the moisture is absorbed into the new bedding, the castings inoculate the new tray with the right microorganisms, and the lazy "basement worms" can move down into a new tray and get back to work.

I have to ditto what monomer said . I had the same thing starting out with about 1500 worms. Thats why its so important to make up bedding and let sit for at least a week before ordering your worms but us greeners dont realize that at first.

Thanks for this info. Good to know that the worms hanging in the bottom tray isn't necessarily a big deal. I still have worms crawling out onto the floor and dying. But I guess I'll just wait a little longer and see if more of them start staying in their home...