My Worms Are All Dead

I've been trying to baby them through the heat but the heat and other composters that have showed up, turned my worm bin into an anaerobic mess. Almost all of the worms died, there where a few huddled in the last of the bedding that had not sucked up the liquid. I had more worms than last year, so I thought I could add more food this year. It was just to much.
My bin is in the garage so its fine in the winter but way to hot in the summer. I think of trying to build an insulated box or an old cooler. Has anybody else tried this in hot areas. Or anything else that would work. Inside is not an option If this won't work I'll most likely give up on the worm bin. I'll still compost and may be devote more to bokashi. But I would have to by EWC for teas and that sucks.

Sorry to hear. I'm in the desert and am reluctant to even try.

It really nice to have them. I've just got about 4 months that its really hot. That why I'm considering an insulated box. I can't find info on it but we'll see.

Awh man, sorry to hear about your worms. There's no way I could keep mine outside so they chill in my house, sucks you can't do the same.

....this literally just popped into my head: could you start a bin, the bury it? using the cool earth to keep the temps down.. might be worth it, maybe try with a smaller bin and just keep the bin small for the hot months, either way good luck, if I have any other ideas I'll be back to post them

upthearsenal said:

Awh man, sorry to hear about your worms. There's no way I could keep mine outside so they chill in my house, sucks you can't do the same.

....this literally just popped into my head: could you start a bin, the bury it? using the cool earth to keep the temps down.. might be worth it, maybe try with a smaller bin and just keep the bin small for the hot months, either way good luck, if I have any other ideas I'll be back to post them

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You know that sounds like a possibly. I could use it in the summer and stick it in the garage in the winter, red worms would not like down near freezing.

I feel for you. I recently killed one of my bins doing a rookie mistake from being distracted and in a hurry. Too much food, and too much liquid.

I was going to start a third bin of European nightcrawlers, mainly for fishing. Instead, I cleaned out the first bin and altered my bedding a bit. They just arrived this morning and are in the bin now. I'll check in a bit to see if they've dug in or not.

I use a all peat bedding now, and what I altered was adding a bit of perlite to lighten it up some. There is also dolomite lime, Azomite, kelp meal, alfalfa meal, wheat bran meal (both bokashi), soft rock phosphate, and a couple handfuls of playground. This gets mixed up, wet down, and allowed to sit for a few weeks before use.

But, I have noticed that this mix seems to stay a bit cooler in the center than the newspaper bedding I used before. Something to consider, along with the insulated box, for the summer months.

Wet

What kind of bins do you use Wet?

snew said:

What kind of bins do you use Wet?

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Just the Rubbermaid totes. Have a boatload of them from when we moved 4 years ago. IIRC, they are the 18 gallon size.

The bedding is basically my mix before everything gets added to it. This way, even if it's not completely consumed, I can still use it without picking out chunks of paper or cardboard.

I still add 'some' cardboard as they really seem to love it to lay eggs on.

The Europeans all went into the bedding within an hour, no climbing up the sides or trying to escape. When I knew I was going to order them, I added a couple of coffee jugs of old grounds along with the perlite to 5 gallons of bedding I had made several months ago. I let this sit outside for several weeks to 'cook' a bit. The bucket had drainage holes in it, and I pretty much kept it covered so it would stay moist, but not get soggy wet.

Wet