worm crisis

I had a serious worm compost crisis today. You'll have to excuse the absence of pictures as the trauma made me go straight to work (I guess I'm not a war photographer).

I pulled up the larger bucket containing the worms (or at least the bucket which should have contained worms...) to find ALL the worms in the bottom bucket (which is only for drainage). The night crawlers (which I was worried about putting in there) were all drowned and dead. Their little bodies bloated and full of bubbles. Most of the red worms were on the sides of the bucket trapped between the upper bucket (which all the worms were running from) and the lake of worm urine which the night crawlers dead bodies were floating in. AAAHHHHGG! Sqrl!!! The worms!

Sqrl came running down the stairs and helped (with moral support) as I removed the surviving red worms from the sides of the bucket. I put the survivors back into the top bucket, and took the worms which were in the "tea" at the bottom outside for burial (also allowing missed survivors to escape).

I have been scouring the web for the last several hours to determine the cause of the downward seeking worms. As near as I can figure, they were leaving because I overfed them. By adding too much food too soon, I created a hot environment which I think drove the worms out of the compost to save themselves from being baked. I also believe that my "brilliant" bucket design is too deep and helped to create the hostile environment. Commercial worm bins are always designed with more surface area (often 16 inches square) so the worms are always working on a thin layer of garbage (one site said NEVER more than one inch deep). So, I ordered a proper worm bin from Happy D Ranch. But until that arrives I need to keep a closer eye on the worms. Now I have a thermometer in the compost to measure the the temperature. I also added a little whiting (calcium carbonate) to help keep the pH up. By the end of the week the new bin should arrive... I'll post more when things change.