I'm new at this and have an emergency situation. Please HELP

Hi, I'm new at this--my worms arrived 2 days ago. I got them settled into my new bin per instructions, and fed them. Right away, I noticed that they were very active--up into the roof and all over. Within a few hours I found them on the outside of the bin, so I took off the cover and put it under a light. Since they were staying in place, before I went to bed I covered them up--put the lid on-- and turned off the light. My husband woke me at 4 AM--there were worms all over the kitchen, some dead. I ended up uncovering it and shining a desk light into it. This afternoon (36+ hours later), I covered it again. The worms have started crawling out again. WHAT DO I DO NOW??????? I intend to keep them inside, as they wouldn't survive the winters here. I don't think I can handle another episode of wormicide and mass migration. If anyone has any suggestions or even info on how long they will likely do this before settling, I'd REALLY appreciate hearing all about.

There will always be a few wanderers, but "worms all over" sounds pretty extreme. I really think something is the matter with your bin set up, that they do not want to be in there. Maybe if you want to describe more about what you have, folks might have some suggestions for improvement.

Bummer

What do you mean by "a few" wanderers? How many is normal?

Is there a way to really screw up the setup? I mean, anything I could have done completely wrong without realizing it?

More details, hmmm. Well, I have a Can of Worms, new, and set it up as described in the instruction manual with the coconut fiber. I put the worms in and added a bit of food. Maybe I should have waited on the food til they were more settled? but they were roaming around the bin and I thought food would be good incentive.
There were, I'd say, 200 worms on the insides of the bin.
"Worms all over the kitchen" means they had wiggled across maybe 15 feet of floor. It wasn't like they had all escaped, but there were a lot of them out of the bin, on the floor (30-50??) and lots congregated on the inside of the cover.
Right now, I have the bin covered and weighted down to keep it closed and I've only found 3 outside of it.

Is it normal for the worms to hang out on the inside of the cover? Do I have too many to begin with? I have 2 lbs.

The food is going fast, and I see lots of worms in it. It isn't buried, I had it covered with burlap, but took that our and covered it with a damp paper bag. Maybe they don't like the burlap?

I think the only thing keeping them in is the weight on the cover, but haven't tried taking it off to see if they're staying in on their own much.

THanks for responding, and please tell me if there's anything I should be doing (or shouldn't be).

What kind of worms did you get? Most people use red wigglers Eisenia fetida. I can't rememberr where but I know I came across some other kind that they didn't recommend just for the reason you stated - they roam. My red wigglers roam all over their box but I rarely see one outside of it.

My other thought is that maybe its too wet and they are moving out, or perhaps there is something irritating them.

I found it "Perionyx excavatus are undesirable to home composters and bait worm sellers. They will compost in warm outside conditions but take over worm beds and drive the E. foetida out. They never ever get big enough for bait. They migrate for no reason even during daylight or with bright lights over them. They will be all over the floor in school or home bins. They are very undesirable for tropical fish food. Cold temps kill them."

http://www.happydranch.com/printer_138.html

p.s. I've never bought worms from these people so it isn't a recommendation for them.

This message was edited Aug 30, 2009 1:08 AM

How moist is your bedding? Worms like it almost soggy.

Hi EGmama

They will come out if your bedding is too hot. I used coir as my bedding but added too much food. It began composting. Hot to the touch. Some nice person here recommended that I add ice cubes wrapped in paper towels until it cooled. It worked. I've quit using coir. It always heats my beds up too much. Other people swear by it.

Let us know how it's going. Every bit of info we can get is helpful.

Thanks for the link Grik.

This is probably way to late to help, but I read that when worms try to escape, they are too dry. Every time I find mine in the lid, I pour on some rain water and it seems to help. If I don't have any rain water available, I drain off any worm tea available and pour that over them. That works too. I also pour on water before I harvest tea since it can get thick.