Castings are toxic to worms at the point when the bin is almost entirely castings. You are a long way away from that. Even at that point, some worms will still prefer to live in the castings if given a choice to leave.

I recall reading something about "toxic" castings. I do not believe castings hurt worms unless it gets anaerobic. My 3'x5'x18" wooden open-bottom outdoor bin has not been harvested in over a year. It is due for harvest very soon though as I can barely get the lid closed. This bin gets mostly kitchen and garden scraps, and my redworms appear healthy.

I have no experience with ANC or plastic bins. Good luck! and let us know how it goes.

Pete

Thank you both for the advise. I'm quite relieved. No more dead worms so far :)

From what I've read and what seems to be true with my bin of EF worms... When the worms are moved to a new home they go into shock. Some of them will adapt and some of them won't. The ones that don't adapt but don't die immediately will spend the rest of their lives breeding nonstop and may take weeks to finally drop dead.

This means that if it took a week or more for dead worms to show up, and their environment didn't drastically change again just before they died, then those dead worms just couldn't adapt and there should be a flush of new worms shortly.

Do note that some plants and seeds have been historically used to kill, or drive worms out of the body. Put in a bin in excess, they could potentially have the same effect of putting in manure from animals that are on worming medication (which is commonly used as preventative treatment).

Hi.
I have that problem again with the dead worms. This time when I take a good look at the dead worms, I found that the worms were deformed, some with sausage-like /string-of-pearls effect as described in this forum (exactly like in the pics) and many other sites. I didn't know what it was until I read about the stuff. They say the main cause is too much nitrates (the protein poisoning), too much food, not enough bacteria so the food will rot inside the worm resulting in trapped gas inside the worm, etc. Some say it may be because of the trauma of being transported to a new place.

Since the casts are not really the problem here, I'm starting to think it's the manure. I thought the manure is kind of safe because there are some worms already living in the manure itself before I add them in the bedding. I keep the bag of manure in the shed a few months before putting it in the worm bin to age it.

So my question is, do I need to move them into new bins again? I don't know if moving them again outweighs the risk of traumatizing them even more, (since I do not know the exact cause) Should I stop feeding them entirely for the time being? Change their diet to food scrap only / manure only feed? Really need advise here. Thank you so much.

Nini,

Too much food and/or too hot. Like you said your nitrogen is way too high and your C:N ratio is out of wack. In other words, too much manure.

Good news, it's easy to fix. Takes time, but easy.

No need to move the worms, just add LOTS of high carbon bedding (cardboard, newspaper, peat moss, coir, etc.)and kinda gently mix it in with the existing material.

What's your moisture level like?

This post was edited by JerilynnC on Sat, Dec 15, 12 at 23:41

For a bin that has gone bad, my general direction would be to prepare a bin with a false bottom of dry airy material. Maybe TP tubes on end along the entire bottom covered with shredded egg carton. Put the wet, food rich, material clawfull by clawfull on to this. It will put air into the nitrogen rich rotting material and possibly save a few worms to start again with.

This is a great learning experience. I would not suggest someone take over a huge system without messing up a tiny system first so they can recognize signs and the value of dry bedding before a big system goes bad.

Dig into it and see what worms are suffering where and why and which worms are doing good by where they are hanging out.

sbryce: "Castings are toxic to worms" That does not work for me. Is it possible we are on the exact same page yet talking about it differently?

I would think it would be very comfortable for a worn to glide past ph balanced, moisture balanced, structured well, 100% vermicastings. This material would be "bad" because it would be lacking in food since all food value has been a few times through a worn or two and already in calcium protected packets.

Surely vermicastings do not exude mean, nasty, toxic substances. I sort of think of vermicastings as a cool safety zone, abet no food, place for worms to go and airerly hang out.

Tell me we have some wormy opinions in common and are not on way different pages.

Vermicastings may be spent worm wise but toxic?

Humor: Does this mean I can not sell vermicastings as the next $$$$ fountain of youth facial?

JerilynnC : the moisture level is okay. Not too wet. Not too dry. I try to keep the bedding moist but not to a point where the manure becomes sticky. After taking out the dead worms, the bin doesnt smell. The other worms are staying put. They look fine... for now. That's why i am quite reluctant to move them to a new bin. Will definitely get the carbon component up.

Thanks very much JerilynnC and equinox for the useful tips :)

Take a handful of the VC out of the bin, squeeze as hard as you can, if more than 3-4 drops of water come out, it's too wet. If NO drops of water come out, it's too dry.

"Take a handful of the VC out of the bin, squeeze as hard as you can, if more than 3-4 drops of water come out, it's too wet".
Another myth that needs to be finally put to bed.
EF's can live in up to 90% moisture (that's pretty darned wet). According to that standard, my bins are invariably, Very Wet.

Shaul

"EF's can live in up to 90% moisture (that's pretty darned wet)."

I've recently been reading and watching plenty of information that clearly shows EF worms living in gravel that is flooded with water most of the time.

I'm pretty sure the general guidelines that are often repeated as hard boundaries were intended for small, non-breathable bins that don't readily support air exchange and have poor drainage. Also, a wet bin can build up various odors that are not associated with bad conditions in my bin (lots of healthy worms low in the bin), but are unwanted inside the home. (I've found that water that has had ashes soaking in it, or dolomite lime powder, will improve conditions in bins that have odor down below)

When you put water in a bin it takes up air spaces... When it drains from the bin, it pulls air into the mix. By that understanding, the more you flood and drain the mix, the better!

I have already started putting more fine grain wood chips in with the mixture to keep the overall mix from smashing completely down. The worms seem to be responding to this very well. I got the idea from reading long ago that worms are attracted to a wood substance called lignin and produce a hormone that causes trees to produce more of it (makes trees put on wood more quickly). I've also recently read lots of claims that mixing wood chips into the soil is a good thing. So I figured, what the heck? I regularly flush the bin with water so that I can use the runoff for fertilizing while I wait for the worms to finish turning everything into dirt, but doing this can cause a lot of settling. I suspect this pushes out air pockets since there's practically nothing in the bin that will remain solid like actual soil has.

Wood chips from the young, weedy trees that continuously spring up in my previously unkempt back woods are in demand by my fruit trees, and now worm bin. If any of them are too big to fit though a screen at harvest time, they will get a bonus pass as the perfect bedding base layer/starter.

I would honestly recommend you switch to red wiggler worms instead. They eat a lot faster which means you won't have as many anaerobic problems.

Hi organicpanik,
I wish I could get my hands on some red wigglers. Unfortunately i live in the tropics and it's hard enough to buy ANC. There're just a few worm farmers here :(

Nini_TreeHugger: Since you live in the tropics, have you tried PE(Perionyx excavatus) or Malaysian Blue, native to your region?
http://webs.uvigo.es/jdguez/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Perionyx-excavatus.pdf

Otis11: hi. Actually i do have some PEs in my bin. At least i think they're PEs. I collected some from underneath a pile of leaves. They're only a handful but they're doing quite well. No PEs grown comercially though.