Neglect

I've been a bad worm mommy. I keep my vermiculture setup in the outbuilding in the backyard, along with the lawnmower, a broken-down (in the not-put-together sense) stainless wire shelving unit, shovels, rakes, garden accessories and a few more storage items.

I hadn't actually gone out there since about mid-December. And it's been COLD. I've been worrying the last week or so, but unwilling to brave the crazy freezing weather we've been having of late to go check on them.

Today it's warm and sunny, so I trudged out in my slippers to see what the damage had been. The idea of sorting through dead worms and any living ones made my heart beat a little faster than normal. When I unlocked the shed, I felt a very cold and ominous draft come out. I hauled out the bin, grabbed a stick, and took the lid off.

First I lifted the one nested bin out to look in the bottom one, where the worms sometimes fall. There were only a couple down there, which is normal. But. They. Weren't. Moving.

Oh, wait, yes they are. Nice.

Then I used the stick to move aside the shredded paper and see all the little wormy corpses that I'd have to pick out. Ew.

Heh. They're all alive! And they still have food! Poor sweet things. I wonder if they froze solid and then thawed and then lived even through that?

Hardy little mo-fos. Good thing there's not a CPS or Animal Control for red worms.