I kept the worms outside on my deck much of the summer but it just got SO hot that I decided to bring them into the basement for some cooler temperatures. I've read that they prefer temps between about 60 and 85 and we've had an especially hot summer so I wondered how they fared. When I harvested these castings it appeared that I had a good number of worms but they were all large...many fewer small or medium worms. I wonder if only the strong and large could withstand the heat?
I love my worms even more now than I did before. They are so much more compliant than my bees. The amount of time I devote to both bees and worms is about the same, but the amount of time I spend worrying about the bees is way off the charts. A beekeeper in my general neighborhood lost her 8-yr-old hives when a tree fell on them in one of the recent storms. My hive is surrounded by big old trees just aching to fall down --- see http://pamela-j.blogspot.com/2010/08/more-tree-damage-from-yet-another-nasty.html.
