Worm revolt! Mass exodus shocks and awes.

I discovered something rather shocking...I went out into the dining room and found a scattering of castings and a few rigid, dried-up worms around my vermicomposting bin. I lifted the lid and huge blobs of worms plopped out onto the floor--hundreds of them were clustered around the edge of the lid, trying to escape in one mass exodus. Oh, crap.

I found two factors that may have resulted in this revolt. First, I had left the bin on the floor in the dining room, not realizing after so many grey days that if we had a sunny day (Saturday) there would be direct sunlight shining on the bin for a few hours that could heat it up. Secondly, I had been a bit too enthusiastic with my feedling of the wormies and put in way more waste than they could consume. I dug around in the bin with my hands and found quite a bit of rotting, moldy debris. I decided to take out all of the excess and moldiest bits, then add some dry bedding to absorb any extra moisture to keep it from pooling, and then give the bin a few days to normalize before adding anything new to it.

Talk about a nasty job...I picked out bits of rotting food with my hands and separated any living worms, putting them all into a pitcher. I scooped up piles of sticky worms and added them to the pitcher too. On the bottom of the bin were a few little puddles with mostly live worms but quite a few dead ones, which smelled pretty much like you would assume dead rotting worms would smell. I put all of the excess bleck into a bucket which got dumped in the woods behind the house to continue rotting outside.

After I got the bulk of the gross stuff and dead worms out of the bin, I tore up some fresh newspaper and simply mixed it in. I sprinkled a little bit of water on top to wet the strips poking out and I figure the dry strips will soak up whatever moisture was pooling on the bottom. I added a little water to the sticky mass of worms, swished it around, then separated them gently and scattered them onto the new bedding. They didn't seem any worse for wear and made their way back into their home. Then I put the whole bin into our mudroom, which has a slate floor and no windows so it stays cool all summer.

I checked it later that night and all seemed well, and twice on Sunday. I've been avoiding drilling holes in the bin because then I'd have to put screening over them to prevent escape, but I'm thinking it might need a little more ventilation. I try to remember to open the lid at least once a day to keep the air moving around, but it's all too apparent that if I'm gone for a day it doesn't take long for all hell to break loose.

Rotten worms, though. Eugh. Talk about gross.