WOW sounds like you are chugging along just nicely, well done.
If the small worms you see have any hint of pink or red in them, then you can say for certain that they are not pot worms and will be your little red wigglers.
Normally in my bins which are flow through in nature, the cocoons are distributed through the castings. Also if the top of your bin is dark for the worms, you will find many, many worms munching away on the top layer.

Cocoons start out bright yellow and darken as they age. You might not notice your cocoons if they're brownish, so you may have some and not know it.

Congratulations, you sound like you're well on your way!

It sounds like baby worms. When I mess around a bit, to see if all of their food is gone, I'll often find a baby worm on my finger. If it's pink it'll be a baby worm. You're a parent! LOL

emerging wormie (popcorn-hull-sized cocoon close-up)

Good Morning chuckiebtoo. A picture that has no doubt helped many vermicomposters know what to look for. I remember it helping me to know what these mysterious "cocoon" things looked like.

To find cocoons harvest a quart of casting like material. Dump it on cardboard or a white surface under a bright light. Get a tool to shuffle the castings such as a Popsicle stick or chop stick. Get your reading glasses. Get real close to the castings like 12 inches away as you root around in it with the stick. You are looking for baby lemons. It is a bit like looking for 4 leaf clovers. I think you will find cocoons quickly.

Strange how this thread was titled "so they like melons" has taken a right turn and seems to be all about cocoons. So be it.

It would be nice if the cocoons would just fall out of the muck that is the castings but instead they are stuck to it and in the muck and need to be manually separated . If I see that I have lots in the castings during a harvest I will take the time to separate . When I do this I often will find 50-60 and know that I have still missed some but if I dont see a lot it all goes in one lumping mass. Its not a bad thing as I will keep my VC moist until Im ready to use and I invariably will find live worms in the mix , still not a bad thing. I dont have a problem if some worms go in my soil for my plants.

Back to the original premise my worms do love the watermelon rinds and seem to go gaga over them. They never last long when I put them in my bins.

Dang, is that only watermelon? I bought a canteloupe the other day specifically because I want to give the worms the rind, just to see them go gaga over something.

Don't get me wrong, I actually do enjoy eating canteloupe... I just had ulterior motives for this particular purchase!

Somewhere scientists should be studying if people with worm bins eat healthier.

Joyousfree, I can't speak for everyone's worms, but mine like watermelon, and LOVE canteloupe.

I'm a big believer in worms are for cleaning up what the people don't eat, but when I want to treat them, canteloupe is their favorite.

LOL Joyous. Only members of this forum would worry, if they bought the wrong kind of food to feed their herd.

Not to worry, worms love Melons of all kinds!

You'll soon see the rind reduced to a delicate piece of lace. :D

do you guys break up the rind at all or just toss it in there?

The slices of melon I usually leave in one piece, or sometimes cut it in half. Depending how big the area is that I want to put it in.

When I freeze the rinds first, they are cut in chunks then in a bag in the freezer.

This post was edited by jasdip on Fri, May 23, 14 at 18:04

Mine dont seem to care that much for cantaloupe , but they dive into watermelon, picky little devils. In a few days time you cant even tell I put any in the bin.

Cut off two ends of watermelon so as to form two bowls. Eat watermelon out of bowls with a spoon. Flip each bowl upside down one per bin, plop, right on top, red down, green up. It actually feels more like I am adding water than food. Now is a great time to add tons of new bedding on top. Then place the remainder of the watermelon newly cut flat side down. Slice off the rind. Place these especially in any harvested but aging vermicompost to add a bit of moisture. I guess one could peek under it in a few days to harvest any missed or newly hatched worms.

I recently attended a friend's house warming, and as I was about to take a bite from a slice of watermelon, it struck me that I should ask the hostess if I could have all the rinds. When I did, she said, "For compost?"
I responded, "Compost worms."
She said, "Here, write it down on a piece of paper and put it next to this jar so people can put their rinds in there."
I left with about 3 lbs of rind.

Into the indoor bins the pieces went. That was last Saturday. Today is Friday. It took about 3 days for the worms to find the rinds, and now, there are several worms under most of the pieces, but there is certainly no 'feeding frenzy' going on. At this rate, I would expect it to take at least two weeks for the rinds to be consumed, maybe longer. HOWEVER... I did see for the first time since I stared my indoor bins, some "young" (small) worms. (Not "pot worms" Enchytraeidae.)

I think the picture of the cocoon that chuckiebtoo posted is the best one I have seen. I had a completely different idea about what they looked like.

Paul

Here is a cocoon, before it's mature. They start out yellow and turn dark as they age.

I've seen those!! Thanks, Jasdip, I have seen at least a couple of those in my bin. Next time I mess around in there, I'll look for them specifically. But I just gave them the canteloupe rind this afternoon, so I want to leave them alone for a couple of days before I go in there to see how they like it.

My eye site must be getting bad. I even tried searching in the bin, but could not find anything looks like that. I keep seeing small pink worms in various lengths, so reasonably sure that I don't have any pot worms that I know off.

Any ways, as long as they are happy and busy, I don't mind not finding a cocoon.

Jasdip, is that a freakishly small shovel, or do you have giant worms?

I'm peeing myself Niivek! That's a trowel, that I sometimes use to harvest with. I'm picturing red worms the size of pythons, if that were a shovel.