I may truly be opening a "can of worms" here, but I have some questions. (Larry in Illinois, I hope you chime in with your experience). Does anyone grow PE's in bins with success? I have bins in contact with the ground, and so I can not say I have "redworms" only. I know there are PE's naturally finding their way into those in-ground bins. They are great composting worms for outdoor bins, I am sure. Bringing those worms mixed with my EF's to my indoor bins, I think I am observing the PE's are out competing my EF's for food. The PE's also, when the least disturbed, migrate out of the bin, with or without lights on.
I have ordered worms for my indoor bins and have found some mixed species, I think. Not sure if they are PE's, but they act like them. They are young and do not have the irredescent sheen to them. They are longer, quicker and thinner than the Ef's. When I weigh these guys out, they start moving out, in full light. They settle after a few days but I still have to have the lights on and do not disturb them.
Redworms are so much easier to deal with and happier to be in a bin situation. I have ENC's also that are happy campers in a bin. My ENC's are kept specifically in exclusive bins. I thought I was doing the same with the redworms, but am now questioning the species being introduced to those redworm bins. Should I be concerned? As far as I think, outdoor, in-ground bin populations would include whatever native species, that find their way to the food/bin. If, however I am trying to help folks build successful indoor bins, redworms or ENC's are the only species, I know that will happily do the job.