Dead worms! What happened?

[laurainthegarden]

Hello everyone,
this morning I found many of my compost worms dead. I've no idea what happened so I thought it'd be best to ask the community. Hopefully, you can help me understand what I did wrong to not commit the same mistake again (and help others as well!)

Some background: i have two wormicompost bins which I fed last week with different food scraps (all bio, no meat, no fish, no cheese, no salt) and some brown paper and cardboard (not glossy) and coffee ground (bio) to keep the moisture ideal.

This morning I checked on them and one bit is fine, while the other had many of the younger (and longer, idk why) worms all up in the surface, clumped together and, sadly, dead.

I really don't know what happened as the moisture levels are fine and there's no significant temperature fluctuation. I also don't think i fed too much food to one bin, but I guess it could be a reason as to why they're dead?

Also, when I feed them last time, I gave one of the bins citrus peels but not to the other. Yes, the one where i put the lemon peels is the one where the worms are dead. Could it really have bein the lemon peels? I checked up to the bottom of the bin where the lemon peels didn't go and the worms there were fine...

To add more infos, here are a couple of pics of the dead worms:

While the worm in the last pic may look like a protein overload, it's very different from the first pic, where the worms look almost... melted? and the stripes are very enhanced, too?

has this ever happen to you? what do you think happened? thank you in advance!

 

[Meadowlark]

Check the ph in both the area where they died and where they are okay. It is possible that too much acidic material is in the area where they died.

Citrus peelings will not kill them per se except if overused they can lower ph to levels that will kill the worms.

 

[Don Perry]

I'd bet on the citrus peels. They have citric acid.

 

[Tetters]

Hello @laurainthegarden. Good to welcome you to the forums. Whenever we have found dead worms it has been because of excess water and they have drowned. This happens of course especially if the water is from the ocean! There is salt too then. Another cause might possibly be if the soil is very compacted.
Have you had a lot of torrential rainfall there?

 

[laurainthegarden]

Check the ph in both the area where they died and where they are okay. It is possible that too much acidic material is in the area where they died.

Citrus peelings will not kill them per se except if overused they can lower ph to levels that will kill the worms.

Thank you!
I'll be sure to check the ph. I feel like i didn't balance it enough due to the lemon and onion peels.

 

[laurainthegarden]

Hello @laurainthegarden. Good to welcome you to the forums. Whenever we have found dead worms it has been because of excess water and they have drowned. This happens of course especially if the water is from the ocean! There is salt too then. Another cause might possibly be if the soil is very compacted.
Have you had a lot of torrential rainfall there?

Thank you!
I don't think it's a water excess as I haven't done anything out the ordinary + the bins have great drenage and the soil isn't compact at all. I don't think it's sal too as i only use rain water and never give them any food that has been salted. I use monstly rain water and tap water when necessary.

 

[laurainthegarden]

I'd bet on the citrus peels. They have citric acid.

Yeah, I thank that's a good bet. My money is on it, too!