Critique my setup:

Hello, new worm grower here.

I'm having, what I think are some problems with my setup. The symptom of the unknown problem is worms escaping in decent numbers, but not fleeing.

My set up is an old fridge turned on it's back, outside. The fridge is 1/4 filled lengthwise with medium. The medium is a mix of corrugated cardboard, an yard soil. For drainage I have the bottom of the fridge filled with cinder blocks split in half, and rocks.. in all "bedrock" about 2 inches high, and an old screen door screen on top of that... which the medium rests on. I estimate there to be about 20 gallons of medium I am working with. The fridge door seal has been partially removed to aid air circulation. the bin is on a slight slant, and one side has some holes drilled in with pvc piping that drains into a spicket.

The worms I am trying to grow are European nightcrawlers, to be used for the dual purpose of fishing and composting. if successful, eventually, for sale in very small amounts for fishing. I bought a pound of worms to start with about a month ago, and have fed them some watermelon and coffee grounds sofar.

More details on the problem: The worms seem to be relatively happy up until mayb a week ago. They have been mating, and eating watermelon enthusiastically. At that time, mayb longer, I noticed seeing worm castings showing up on the walls of my fridge. I didn't think much of this until yesterday, where I observed 3 of them escaping into the door crevices of the fridge. I didn't really consider that worms could climb plastic when I constructed this system, so there are ample locations to escape the bin if they climb.

I spent this morning re-harvesting them from the surrounding earth around the bin, under cinder blocks my kids use to stand and peer into the bin, and under the drainage spicket. I estimate that I re-gathered mayb 1/4 the total pound that I got, and perhaps another 1/4 is missing? Choking back deep feelings of rejection, I tested the soil ph, which showed 7.2... added more bedding and "churned" up the existing bedding, and gave them more watermelon. The worms now have 2X more bedding to play around in. I've been keeping track of the temperature since I stated, and it hasn't moved farther than 60-70c. (yay insulated fridge!) The soil smelled fresh too, so nothing "bad" was happening as far as anaerobic scenarios.

Anyways, my own analysis of what's going on here, I suspect mayb the bedding was too dry? It seemed wet enough according to what i've read, (squeeze a handful, and 2 drops come out) but the worms that were left were near the bottom in some swampy looking soil... mayb these euro nightcrawlers need more water than what is documented? My other thought is that these things are just restless, and like to explore and propagate. If that is the issue, then solutions to preventing climbing up the plastic walls would be welcomed. I have for now applied vegetable oil to the sides, hoping that helps for now.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. my kids love the worms!

Vultcha, I had a similar experience with the Euros which I tried several years ago. I have been raising red wigglers for more than 50 years and thought I might give the Euros a try for the same reasons. When I first started raising worms I got acquainted with a guy who was raising the Euros commercially. He had a detached garage which he had rows of stacket wooden boxes mad of red wood which were six feet long, two feet wide, and about six inches deep. The bottom of the boxes was mad of corrugated tin with quarter inch holes about and inch apart in every direction. His media was peat moss and he fed his worms alfalfa meal (w/o oil added).

One night we had a bad storm and my Euro buddy lost power for several hours that night. The next morning when he went to check on his worm farm there were worms all over the floor, on the walls and even on the celing. Fortunately it was summer time or the worms would have frozen. So moral to this story Vulcha is leave the heat and light on your worm motel and maybe they will stick around.

I eventually got tired of messing with mine and dumped them in one of my dug down raised beds. From time to time I spot some wandering about the yard or garden after a rain but the raised bed was completely empty a year later when I completely removed all material in the bed..