The great worm escape

Tragedy has struck in the basement! I found (and counted) fourteen worms in various states of dessication curled-up on the concrete floor.  Some definitely were fresh escapees from the worm compost bin with their dead bodies still semi-soft. While others, that had managed to wiggle quite far away, could have been there for days, perhaps weeks and resembled hollow bits of twigs more than their former worm selves. I guess you gotta be prepared when you switch on all the lights - you never know what you might find in the basement.

Still I haven't attended to the worms in three days when I lifted the lid off the worm bin and found some were on the verge of making a trip out into the wider and scarier world of the basement. Unfortunately the lid does not fit snugly on the worm compost bin. There is a gap where the worms can either intentionally or not fall over the lip of the bin and out onto the cold hard floor. This tells me the worms are not happy and would rather be somewhere else than in the pile of compost-in-progress. I stuck my hand right into the bottom of the wet mushy heap. And wet it was. Too wet for the worms liking I think, so I've just spent a good half hour tearing up dry newspaper and cardboard to put into the bin, hoping this will take care of the problem. I gave the compost a good-turning over and found plenty of other fat very-much alive worms. As the worms play a big part in the cycle of nature I don't think they'll mind that I added their dead brothers and sisters back into the compost bin.....