On Thu, 27 Oct 2005 03:49:48 GMT, "Wylie Wilde"
wrote in aus.gardens:

Sometimes I have opened up the bin to find that all the normally healthy
worms in it have gone up into the rim of the lid and died, all squashed up
together in a horrible mass. The
bin is filled with the usual sort of garden compost material grass clipping
etc..

Is it because the compost has become too acidic or is the bin too hot from
the Sun and all.


I think the others are right it is the heat. I have had the same type
of bin for nearly two decades and in winter the worms seem to clinb up
the side in dozens (when you open the lid they drop off to get away
from the light) As the weather warms up you rarely see the worms on
the top of the contents and I have never had the mass suicides you
decribe. I am surpriosed they don't burrow down to cooler parts (I am
assuming yours is like mine and has no base and the worms are ordinary
garden worms that climb up and reproduce in their millions.

I was wondeing if there was something in the bin they didn't like and
they couldn't get down to the base. I had a disaster many years ago
when I put heaps of cumquots in the bin - all they did was rot, create
a foul smell and acted as a barrier to the worms.

My bins are only used for food scraps and the odd pile of swept up
leaves because I never put grass clippings in on the premise that is
is bad enough having to cut grass without collecting it as well. Every
so often I throw a handfull of gardener's lime into the bin,
regularly water it and since the cumquot incident have never had any
trouble.


Regards
Prickles

This message only uses recycled electrons