Sylvia, You can probably apply it as often as you like, but I would say once or twice a week would be more than enough. Mike

For the worms, if you've still got some alive a few things you can do depending on how much stuff you have in it and how much you're willing to do. Also, if you have finished VC in the bottom of the inn, could be worms hiding on there also. If it's not that full, you can always remove all the live worms you can, empty the inn of the stinky stuff, fill it back with moist cardboard and put the live worms back in. Basically starting again. For the foul stuff you've removed, you might have cocoons in there but if it's lots of dead worms you probably don't want to go digging for them, the smell is horrible. If you had somewhere out of the way (for the smell), maybe have it in a open container and mix in cardboard again to help air it out and get it back to normal. Once the smell is gone, might even be able to feed back into the inn. If it's pretty full and you don't want to go digging through it all, you could try adding some cardboard to the smelly stuff. Take out what worms you can easily find, mix in more bedding in order to try and air it out. Then add more cardboard on top again for somewhere for the works to run to and put the saved worms in that. Again, could be some worms on the bottom of the inn waiting until things get better before coming out. For the cause, very odd. As there's always an open bottom it's a bit impossible to flood and drown them. I keep a small bucket under it just incase I have too much. Due to too much melon I've had water drip out from the bottom and no adverse effects. If you had clumps you had to 'smash' to open, it sounds like too dry. Should always be damp. In the inn the edges can get dry, but the core should always be damp. Due to this, the more bedding you have in there, the easier it is (dries out less quickly). I loaded mine about half full with just cardboard when starting mine, then added worms. I also much prefer cardboard (plain shipping box cardboard) over shredded newspaper as it takes longer to dry out and doesn't clump like newspaper does. The stiffness makes it able to keep airflow going when you mix it in. You can always sprinking water through the mesh lid if things look dry. Here's a link (has pictures) of another thread where someone had problems with an inn, although it ended up being an issue of very few or wrong worms. Some other thoughts and ideas there. http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/verm/msg0319491713240.html?16

"They see long-term medical possibilities in the idea of adding skin bacteria instead of vanquishing them with antibacterials..." "...How funny it would be if adding bacteria were the answer all along." " “It’s very, very easy to make a quack therapy; to put together a bunch of biological links to convince someone that something’s true,” " I am still waiting for someone to write an article about spraying an operating room with good microbes in preparation for surgery. I have hope. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/magazine/my-no-soap-no-shampoo-bacteria-rich-hygiene-experiment.html?_r=0

g'day clarebear, i have used worm farm worms in my gardens i did it here so i had some worm action happening in the new beds, i also use a lot of mulch cover. they do need a lot of fresh sort of organic matter but they did their job, and now when i use the material from the composting toilet they are in there so they continue to work this material in the beds. they seem to last well in the beds like i say while the suitable material is kept up to them so if you are putting your kitchen scraps or adding fresh from the farm mushroom compost they will continue. in brisbane we got a lot of rain in one season so the beds where very wet they didn't like that they actually climbed the walls of the house and congregated around the window ledges. len