""the clumps decomposed and smell bad"" You are on your way to creating an "overfed" condition.

"Perhaps European nightcrawlers don't like it?"

Very likely :-) These are not your typical worm bin dwellers - they are inground composters and prefer a diet of decaying organic matter: rancid kitchen scraps, decaying leaves, garden waste and grasses and animal manures. And they also tend to consume less than their much smaller red worm cousins so be careful not to overfeed.

Okay, good to know.

>Overfed

Yes. I had to dig out the clumps of worm chow—I think I got them all.

What temperature is your bin at? If it's cool the worms will be less active and not want to eat much.

It's usually around 60 degrees F. That can rise to 75 degrees when food decomposes.

They've been doing well with kitchen scraps, but I thought I'd try a bit of chow again (actually, just flour this time). I sprinkled a bit of it on the top a few days ago, and they haven't touched it.

So, I think Garden Gal is right: They just don't eat that kind of food.

Maybe they're just on a diet.

I've tried the worm chow again, and they are eating it within a day or two. Perhaps I just didn't have enough worms before, or they weren't hungry enough.

I spray the top, sprinkle the chow on the top, careful not to put too much, and the next day much of it is gone. The day after, it's all gone.

Also, if I go into the garage and open the lid quickly, I see a lot of worms on the surface.

I'm hoping this will make my worms bigger and fatter.

Probably not applicable but as kids on the farm we kept worms in buckets to use for fishing and whenever we fed them anything we buried it under a bit of soil.

To revise albert's comment based on my experience with Purina worm-chow (today). If I sniffed on the worm-chow especially when damp, I noticed some ammonia smell. Could just be me but I rather be cautious. So I do not bury it, just a light dusting over the top, moving the shredded newspaper aside.

It could also be just this batch of Purina worm chow because I can understand that one batch could be different from the other, they are floor sweepings from producing all other dry pet food.

Al: I did an experiment to fatten up worms and it seems to work. Use a take out plastic container and select ca. 50-100 mature worms. Cut a couple of holes in the lid. Add some flat pieces of egg carton material layered and some bedding for bacteria start-up, shredded newspaper and add some food on the opposite side.

I have access to used weed grass mats from a juice store. These are excellent material for a worm bin, especially start-ups, and I imagine because of the microbes and tight spaces to rub off their cocoons off their neck. I checked and the majority of cocoons were found there. But also pot worms. They seem to be in the habit to attached themselves to worms and cocoons, providing them with moisture and that slimy saliva like stuff worms have around their body. So, I just sprinkle powdered egg shells around it. I keep them moist rather than damp, if you know what I mean. Because of the tight space, use worm chow sparingly.

The worms already seem fatter (my imagination?). However, today I noticed many more escapees than usual on the sides of the bin. Conditions seem perfect--no smell, moisture seems good, I haven't disturbed things recently.

I wonder if they're looking for more chow higher up. That is, since feeding chow on the surface, I open the bin and see a lot of worms "crawling" around on the surface. Maybe it's not surprising that they start climbing the walls.

The mass exodus has stopped completely. I'm guessing I had done too much digging around.