There was no standing water. Even at the very bottom the material was able to absorb it all. Until I have a flow through I do not want holes in my bins at all. I do not want "tea". To me tea would be a sign of a poorly managed bin. Normally I only compost in containers as deep as 5 gallon buckets. I was trying to stress a test system to see about this "protein" poisoning. I could not get it to happen even with pouring in the corn meal instead of sprinkling in only a tiny bit.

Okay, I'll admit up front that I have no specialized knowledge (other than first hand experience) about this thing called "string of pearls" disease... but I do have some time to kill so let me ruminate and ramble on this topic. First of all, this whole condition in ill-defined... "string-of-pearls" is obviously just a reference to a single symptom and not even a complete description of a condition let alone naming a disease. There is no clue as to cause and effect.... at least the alternate terminology "protein poisoning" leads one to certain assumptions about the likely causes. I've seen mention elsewhere on the Internet trying to link the outward appearance of the dying worm to being bloated (gas) in obvious reference to the "pearls" however to my eye it looks like the "string" is the deformed part of the worm and it would suggest perhaps parts of the worm is being dissolved. And then there's these occasional references to cold... I'm not sure how temperature plays into this but the one time I experience worms with the condition it was pretty warm (60-70F) in the basement. Right now my worm bins are out in the unheated garage in the dead of winter and I'm measuring bedding temperatures below 40F and no problems... they also have literally mountains of food to munch on (and surprisingly are working on those piles, albeit slowly). As a sideline: I have two bins of Africans, which are reputed to die at anything under 50F... they too are out in the cold garage and though these guys are not eating hardly compared to the Euros and Red Wigglers, they are nevertheless alive and appear in good shape and leave me no doubt they will survive this winter without issue. My conclusion is that cold has no bearing on the condition called "string-of-pearls". Some things I know from other activities/hobbies I've been involved with in the past: too much simple sugars will often lead to fermentation build-up of alcohols and phenols, while excess protein can degrade to build-up ammonia concentrations. Also there are food stuff which contain proteolytic enzymes, such as papain (in papaya) and bromelain (in pineapple) that will slowly dissolve protein molecules... worms are almost entirely made up of protein... think about it. I will go back to my original observation that the weird part is the "strings" and not the "pearls". Based upon this my thinking is that something is dissolving the worms rather than the worms are blowing-up. Thus I might suggest that worms always be fed in one section of the bin and not scattered all over the surface... also I would suggest large amounts of high-protein be limited or mixed with more "carbs" and finally I'd try to keep the concentration of simple sugars to quantities that fermentation yeast/bacteria can process at a rate the worms can consume without flooding their bedding. As a wrap up to my ramblings here: Do I know what this "string-of-pearls" disease is? No... but I don't believe anyone else on the Internet knows for sure either. Thus everyone is entitled to their guesses. And now you have mine.

iLoveLawn: When I started wormfarming, my newspaper bedding were clumping too. After some observing and tweeking, now they don't clump anymore. At the beginning, I used a Worm Factory and I followed some advice to moisten the shredded newspaper. In my case it was the small size of the bin that couldn't handle enough shredded newspaper bedding, or any other bedding, If I remember correctly, the actual "working" height of the WF is about 5" or 6". The newspaper clumped when it got too wet. And I really watched to minimize wet worm food . Today, I use several RMs and a 2x4 ft. wooden bin. I always add the NP and CB dry. If the bin needs moisture, I do 1 pass with the garden hose on "mist" setting. Whenever I remember, I go back after a few hours, fluff it a bit and do another pass. Once I figured out how much water it can take until it starts to clump, I even use it in my 3 gal. bins and still no clumping there. If I have to choose to BUY bedding, I rather use coco coir. To dry a bin that is too wet, coco coir works real fast. For this purpose I also used saw dust pellets that I p/u at a pet store when they change the bedding of their small animal cages. I still have 1/2 bag of peat moss sitting in the shed and I still didn't put it in the worm bin. I can use peat moss for my planters if I need to, but I can't use newspaper for that purpose. That's why the worms get all the newspaper and cb.and with proper water"management" , they won't clump. Just my 2â. And my to answer ""Chop, freeze, or precompost"", I do pre-rot, no room in the freezer.

I am certainly not a worm expert but I seem to recall there is more than one type of red worm and often mistaken for the Eisenia Fetida (red wiggler) even by sellers. See if this video helps... I do know IF worms are happy they will not try to escape - so something must not be to their liking if you see them climbing out. I do know mine seem to like it quite moist - more so than other worms. Red worms are content to remain working for you in conditions are to their liking. Provide them food, moisture, and suitable bedding material and they will happily stay in their bins or outdoor colonies. However if their bedding gets dry or too acidic they will try to escape. If you don't feed them they will go looking for food. Snipped from here http://www.wormfarmfacts.com/Red-Worms.html Maybe they don't like the peat moss as mentioned earlier. Then again it could be something else even moisture or temperature. I know I out mine out in the garage last nite and it got down to 52 deg - when I opened the bin I did have a few trying to climb out. Put them back in the cellar and they seem happy again. HTH