Having read extensively about protein poisoning with no real answer as to what it is and how it happens I stressed my system on purpose. Usually I vermicompost in a 4 gallon square bucket with egg cartons or tp rolls standing up and a paper towel roll standing up, to give airflow to the bottom.

Instead I used a diaper pail as tall as two 5 gallon buckets. I put in egg cartons on the bottom and a single wrapping papper tube as a snorkle for air. Vermicompost and worms from buckets were added on top of maybe 7 lunch size bags of orange skins. Eventually I added a SCOBY from kombucha. This is bacteria and yeast. I wanted to keep this very wet for the worms to eat. I also added a quart of acidic kombucha. I imagined it eating the worms as it dripped down into the bin. The bin already contained more corn meal then one should add because I was trying to heat up the bin. But it never heated up. Then on top I added shredded egg carton cardboard and more water to keep the SCOBY damp. And more bottles of water. And more water. The top was damp but what was happening at the bottom? The cardboard air tube failed. A few days passed. Every thing smelled fine. I even added water to a bucket of vermicompost awaiting this years seedlings.

When I dug into the system the top maybe 15 inches were fine. Then some smell. At the very bottom some worms could be stretched really long. They were dead. Maybe I lost 40 worms in all. I individually shuffled the material by a three pronged tool over to three prepared containers with lots of airy bottom bedding and lots of tubes to exchange air. The previous smell that happened while digging into the bottom dissapeared in hours. The front of some worms seemed better off then the back of them. All worms were whole. Some surely did, were and will die. I think it was not the acidity but the lack of oxygen able to get to the worms at the bottom. Despite all the water it was not a pool or even more wet then 10 or so inches up. I think it was all no oxygen. I wonder if a single 1/4 inch air vent would as in a flow through system of provided enough air to correct the many errors I did on purpose?