No idea what the fungus gnats have to do with it ... Anyhow, just wanted to ask if you have since found out what was going on?

I have been having a similar issue, ... After a bit of a rocky start, the worms were thriving, and a while later, I suddenly saw a cocoon explosion, and a couple days after a baby worm explosion (clearly I missed a lot of cocoons before, because they do have the pink line so they are not potworms and cocoons don't hatch that soon) but then they started climbing up the sides ... now another few days later, it has gone so far that the baby worms climb into/through the piece of cloth I've put under the lid to keep the flying insects out (we had a bizarre issue with tiny red larvae in the condensation on the sides ... Cleared up by whipeing them of repeatedly whilst restricting acces for egglaying adults by means of the cloth) and they get stuck in the rather dry fabric poor dumbasses ...

the adults stay in the bin, nothing seems off (moisture, smell, pests, ...) the only things I could imagine is if they feel crowded (although we started with a rather small population for our bin size and the bin is getting quite filled by now, so plenty of volume for them to get around without running into eachother) or if there is too little food given the new population (still trying to figure out how much to feed them, since pocket feeding absolutely creates a stinky mess they avoid ... But there seemed to be a bit left ... Anyway, I decided to take some scraps out of the freezer in addition to yesterdays cooking scraps and feed them a good portion in case it helps) or if they are just babies and hence dumbasses ;)

For the time being, I rescued as many babies from the cloth as possible and I have now resorted to putting the bin in front of the window, hoping the light will keep them from climbing as much until the food breaks down enough for them to eat/they learn to be less dumb

any other opionions/suggestions?

Sara: Using light as the 1st method to keep the worms down is what I also do.

Don't know where you are located but I am in the Pacific Northwest. After many months of hot temp. it changed like a week ago. Several days of heavy rain and drop of temp. caused worms in some of my bins trying to escape. I don't know what the exact cause is but I have some speculation.

a) With outside temp. lower than inside the bin, condensation forms on the walls and this caused worms climb the walls.

b) Lower temps. means less bacterial activity so worms try to escape to "greener pasture"

c) Depending on feeding, less bacterial activity may cause harmful gases build up and worms trying to get away from this.

d) One thing suggested in another worming site that I am not able to check: change in atmospheric pressure (barometer reading)

So, my next course of action is harvesting the accumulated VC where needed and put in the heaters. It's earlier than in the past when I don't need to put in heaters until Oct. or even Nov.

Hope this helps.

Thanx for the reply 11otis

I must say the light is only mildly helping, so I am still looking for reasons/solutions ... I must say I live in Belgium where constantly changing weather is the norm, and since we got our worms local, i'd expect they are fairly used to that ... They may still move to not drown and things, but we have had bigger weather swings since we had the worms where none climed so I doubt it personally.

all of these suggestions sound somewhat reasonable, and I have definetly read them and considered them before ... The major thing that doesn't add up is that only the babies climb and that most of these circumstances have happened before with no climbing happening.

Update ... Before leaving the house for the weekend, I tried a thing; coming back the babies weren't climbing anymore, so I'm still not sure what it was, but apparently somehow it got fixed ... I took some of the food for them that I had put in the freezer, and sprinkled some all around the edge (thinking both the cold and later the undigested lump of food would discourage them from crossing the area) Then I put a layer of cardboard all over, since I noticed I had gotten the bin a little more wet then usual the previous days (trying to rescue babies I whiped them down with paper, and then got the paper wet, so they wouldn't try out sticking to dry paper) and since dry cardboard may also discourage climbing ... And we left the bin out in the light on the kitchen table ... That last bit might not have been the nicest, since they probably got a little hot in the direct sunlight, but it was kind of a I just left them there more so then a conscious thought where to put them ... Anyway, coming back after the weekend, the bin didn't smell the nicest, also not horendous, just warm, wet and crussiferous leaves starting to digest ... But no more climbing ... Mixed everything up, checked that they were all still alive and happy, and put them back in their dark cabinet ... No more climbing since ... So did they learn their lesson or did the extra food I put in previously become available to them or do babies just like it very wet? I don't know, but I'm happy something worked

I bet it was the extra layer of cardboard on top. In general, a layer of shredded paper or cardboard on top solves a lot of problems. Absorbs excess moisture, while letting air through; keeps most other bugs out; basic barrier that the worms usually won't crawl through; and, buffer zone - if anything is off below, they have an in-between layer to escape to. An inch think is good, two better, will eventually get absorbed into the mix, so add occasionally. Oh, also tends to reduce/absorb any smells. (Note, I'm not saying it's magic, it won't solve all problems)