I always take that noise as a sign that everything in the bin is running in tip top shape. That noise should be our goal.

I wouldn't say it's just from them retreating to get away from the light. If I just walk up and put me ear near it without touching anything, I can hear that. I figured it's just noise from them moving around doing what they do. Like equinoxequinox said, I take it as a good sign.

I like the sounds and smells of it too.

Gardenway reruns on a recent lively and active Facebook Vermicomposting post: "My euros bin sounds like Rice Krispies with milk just added snap crackle & pop" Us but newer and improved. Slavery Squared. Note: If here sucks our brains and sells it... Facebook sucks our brains and sells it again and again and again forever. And then sells us more advertising than here. Facebook is so bad it makes here look good. And that is hard to do. Not that Gardenway was great.

When I've pulled back the top layer of papers I've seen the top of the compost heave as the worms made their way back into it. The compost is most so I think the sound you hear is soil/compost pulling apart and the worms slipping through a moist layer of compost.

Not to put a damper on the little cuteness-es of a well-functioning worm squirm, I must say that, IMHO, if the top of the compost heaves when the wormies make a getaway, that worm bin needs to be divided because there is an overpopulation of wormies in that place.

chuckiebtoo

Im guessing that if the worms are over crowded one of the first things a person might see is worms in places you dont normally see them, on the lids or even outside the bin. That is one of the things that was happening on my very first tray just before adding a second tray. I often see heaving in the area where I placed food when removing a lid but there is still places for them to retreat to.

Actually, wormies explore the bin, including the underside of the lid. If they didn't, I would become concerned about them. LEAVING (enmasse) is another story.

chuckiebtoo

Simplisticly, I knew that worms made noises because I can see robins listening for them and find them with one stab of their beak.

I had a parakeet once who hung out with robins sometimes. He told me that robins don't listen for worms. Instead, he said, they watch for them with that laser-sight they're privvy to that they were blessed with so as to have such success with wormies that they all get that fat.

Moles, likewise, despite being blessed with almost no vision, find wormies underground, in the dark, sensing the vibrations wormies make trying to escape robins.

chuckiebtoo