Oh goodness, you don't want to go there. winter 2012-2013 I had an infestation of aphids that was beyond psychotic. I fought them with everything and they won. Once outside the ladybugs helped clean them, but they had suffered a lot due to the infestation. This year I didn't have issues until the temps started warming, this year I just washed them off with a spray of water weekly. Last year I used Neem oil, insecticidal soap, water, a lemon mixture I found on the web (it burned the leaves), I tried a few other things, NOTHING worked. It was horrible. Pam

I would say it sounds like your primary problem is over feeding. The only times I have had a mite problem has been when there was too much food and or too much moisture. Too much food can also create the too much moisture problem. Now the other thing that is possible could be that the bin heated up. This can be caused by over feeding, especially if you feed certain foods that can "heat up" such as grains (stale bread etc). Also if you mix the food into the bedding, rather then just in pockets, that can add to the heat factor. Now them clustering on the lid could also be from not letting them settle in for a day or two with a light on. I have "settled" in several shipments now and the last one I received I for some reason went brain dead and skipped the light for the first night. Checked them two days later and I swear the entire pound of worms was attempting escape under the lid. Put a light in the room and kept the lid off and by morning they had all crawled back down, haven't had any escape attempt since. I would say you probably had more then one issue. I would think the sick worms and mites is from over feeding. The escape attempt is probably from skipping the light and or your bin getting hot. Take it slower, add food in one or two pockets, then when it is almost gone add another pocket. Soon you will have a better idea of their rate of consumption and can better guage how much food to add and how often. I could be more specific if I knew how many worms you started with - 1 pound or two pounds? And what size your container is? Don't worry too much, I think most of us had these problems with our first batches. I still struggle with the mites occasionally. Kat

I'd have come faster, Bruce, if you'd have offered me a beer... Worms that have broken apart, formed blisters or ulcers on the skin surface or look like a "string of pearls" are symptoms of worms near death from any number of reasons, but are not symptomatic of any one condition. These symptoms were once thought to be the result of "protein poinsong" (something I once believed many years ago as well), a mythical malady that has since been debunked by good science. When earthworms are introduced to an enviornment radically different from that one to which they are used their mortality rate does, indeed, climb, though physical damage as is being described is not all that common. I am guessing on this as much as anyone else, but I might suggest that it is shipping damage that at least some of you might be seeing. Now, here's where I annoy some commercial worm growers ::sigh::; The rotating harvesting equipment used by many larger-scaled worm growing operations are very physically hard on worms, causing an increase in mortality rates as high as 30% over a six week period following harvest. When worms harvested in this way are subsequently subjected to shipping in hot trucks over several days, the stress and trauma can be significant, resulting in the kind of damage being described. While it may not apply to everyone who has experienced large numbers of blistered, pinched-off worms, it is the culprit in many cases. Those of you seeing just a few worms now and then with the above described symptoms are simply seeing worms that have died, most often from "natural" causes. Now, Bruce, about that beer...? Kelly S

Rose midge fly maggots are usually only found at the very apex of the rose's growing tip. I believe some kind of moth, beetle, or wasp slit your stems, deposited eggs, or laid eggs on the stems, and the emergent larva ate their way into the stem. The hope that the hatching out larva will live and grow over winter eating the pith of the stem, was cut short when you removed the damaged stem. I've never had such a case, but if you have no similar damage elsewhere in your roses, be thankful. You nipped it in the bud! You know, fall cicadas do that kind of damage up in trees at this time of year. The female cicada puts a slit in a tree's outer most twig, lays an egg in the slit, and goes to the next twig. The egg hatches, eats the pith, and the twig above the damage wilts, dries up and dies. The larva drops to the ground, burrows in and feeds on tree roots. You may have had a cicada or a cicada like insect do the damage. Leaf Hoppers are related to cicadas. Moses