Worm Police
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A Mature Breeder Earthworm
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Re:What happened? What did I do wrong/ - 2006/03/19 12:52
Hi Truckdriverx72,
I also experienced a couple of abrupt losses, caused by different things.
The first time was similar to yours, in 2002, I saw steam rising out of the worm bin, that happened two days after feeding about a gallon of dry beat pulp, when I watered it, it expanded greatly, then of course in a few days, it soured and steamed, I lost most of the worms in that bin. I watered it down, stirred it, drained it, added lots of torn paper, and then forgot about it. About a month later, I noticed lots of worm hatchlings, I then started to feed the bin as normal, and I recovered from that incident.
Last year, in April, I noticed a motor oil like weird smell, coming from another bin, on close inspection, there were worms on the surface, but when I lightly touched them, they didn't move. Digging through the bin, I noticed they were all dead and decomposing. Then another bin started to get a similar smell.
I racked my brain for weeks trying to determine what killed them. I thought it was a combination of certain foods given at the wrong time, and sudden warm weather. Then I remembered I had fed a can of bad fruit. This can sprang a leak in my cabinet, it was a can that was stored in an unheated area for a while, then returned to my kitchen cabinet, it was slightly rusty. I split it between 2 bins. Two-thirds in one bin, and one-third in another.
It was those 2 bins that I had losses. The second affected bin, I manage to rescue about a pound of worms. I cleaned out both bins, and tossed the old bedding in and out door bin, and covered it, too keep animals out.
I learned even worms can suffer from food poisoning.
So my advise to worm farmers, be wary of feeding canned foods that went bad.
And also not to over feed grain type foods, and sugary foods like dried beet pulp. I still feed beet pulp, but I never feed more than a half cup of dry at a time, as dried beet pulp expands 4 times its bulk, when wet.
Set your old bedding asside for now, to see if you might get some hatchlings later. As the egg capsules can survive extremes of heat and cold.
How big is your chest freezer bin? I would advise to have several small sytems going, rather than one big one, just incase there is a loss, one can recover. An old timer saying "Never keep all your eggs in one basket". Is good advise.
Good luck and let us know how you are doing.
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