This week in Southern Oregon, we've had 100+ degree weather nearly every day. Lucky for us at Red Tail Homestead, we've been mulching and soaking the gardens like crazy; when the heat wave hit, our plants were ready.
Unfortunately, our worm bins were not ready for the heat wave. On the first day, we checked on the worms in the evening--when the temp was about 102--and found the same thing in every bin: all our worms were trying to escape!
I didn't take a picture, but this image from tannie.nl is a great example. The worms start crawling up the sides of the bin, clearing away any bedding or castings from their bodies. They stretch out as long and thin as they can get, and get a wet, glassy look. Any nooks and crannies in the bin, especially around the lid and handles on plastic tubs, will be filled with wiggling gobs of worms. If you ever discover this situation in your bin, put your hand against the bedding--if it feels like your worm bin has a fever, then you better get a hose, stat!
Our worm bins live under a tree in the summer, out of direct sunlight, in an effort to keep them as cool as possible, but shade alone is no match for extreme heat. Plastic tub worm bins retain extra heat, like a little greenhouse; a blessing in the Winter, but in the Summer heat, all of our plastic tubs were in crisis. The wooden and metal bins were doing better, but also had their share of escape attempts.
The first thing to do when your worms are trying to escape is add cold water. Make sure you run the hose for a minute to get cold water: blasting them with boiling hose water wont help one bit. Rather than trying to push your worms back into the bin with your fingers or a stick, just gently spray them back down into the bedding. Then give them a patient, gentle soak, until the temp of your bedding comes down to under 90 degrees Fahrenheit, preferably closer to 70 degrees.
Usually, I don't advise watering a worm bin unless it gets dry; the natural moisture in food and yard scraps is usually plenty water. Too much water leeches out nutrients, creates muddy castings, and causes the bin to go anaerobic (low oxygen), which can make the bin less productive and smelly. However, when the alternative is having all your worms try to escape, or worse, expire from the heat, then don't hesitate to give them a rinse.
This is also when you will discover if your drainage holes are working properly. If your worm bin starts looking like soup, better get those holes draining fast! Worms can handle a little swim now and then, but they are also quite capable of drowning. Proper drainage is crucial.
The next step is to figure out an alternative lid. Nothing beats a solid lid for keeping out rodents and unwanted vermin, but they also hold heat in the bin. At Red Tail, our chickens free range, and would devastate the bins if we left them uncovered. Our solution was to cover the bins with a bit of wire during the day, then covering them with their proper lids at night. Between the lid management and watering twice a day, our worms have recovered and are happily munching away and breeding again.
One of our experimental worm bins is doing the best in the heat. Its a 100 gallon fabric pot, sometimes call a "smart pot." The worms seem to really like this bin, and they've maintained a reasonable temperature and moisture level while all the other worm bins were cooking. I just spray a little cold water on the outside of the fabric once a day, and it seems to stay happy. However, I suspect the worms will eat through the fabric eventually and ruin the bin, but for now, it's working great.
Even with the watering and removing lids, the plastic tubs were still too hot. Lucky for us, we have a covered concrete slab that stays cool and shady, and due to a central buckling of the slab, it happens to drain perfectly. We were just storing some scrap plywood in there, and so it was, with a little rearranging and a few concrete blocks for support, our newest, biggest (temporary?) worm bin was born.
I haven't devised a wire lid for this yet, and the chickens haven't caught wise to the giant open bin of worm snacks (I guess I know what my next project/chore is...), but it worked like a charm. The worms all retreated to the edges as the bedding cooled down for a couple days, but have gradually worked their way back out and returned to normal eating and "loving."
For now, the plastic and small wood bins are empty, but I'll be moving everybody back in when the weather turns cold, and possibly loading the bins into cold frames. Every year, we try new things and adapt to what nature throws at us. I'll let you know how that works out, later.
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