Anyway...I ordered my worms and they arrived yesterday. It was getting dark when I got home, so I quickly opened the package and put the contents of the bag(1 lb ENC) into my prepared bin. I then went over and turned on the garage lights and started checking out my bin, but I didnt see any worms...I dug around a bit more, but didnt really get into it cause I was in my work clothes. I put the packaging and such in the trash and headed in(i also put the lid on my bins). This AM i get up and start digging around the bin, but i still see no worms...I check the bag that they come in, and it seems to be intact, but there are all kinds of tiny white bugs crawling around the outside and inside the box. At first i was afraid they were the worms, but closer inspection showed they had tiny little legs...

so anyway..it looks like I got a pile of dirt. I guess when i get home tonite I will have to dump it all into my wheelbarrow and see if there are any worms at all.

Does anyone have any tips? I already emailed the vendor and am waiting for a reply.

How many times have we heard depictureboy's story?
Let's give newbies something to work with.
And worm sellers a standard for their product
by having informed and aware customers.

Let's see what you actually got there depictureboy
and maybe give a polite call or e-mail to the seller.

Apart from that, my view would be to get the new worms into their new home and let them settle rather than put them through a quarantining program. But that assumes that you are starting with a reasonable quality/quantity of worms supplied.

It sounds like you did check almost immediately. A pound of worms is a pretty big gob. Most worms straight out of a shipping box are lethargic. They don't go straight into the bedding. I recently harvested 3/8 lbs. of Ef's and then dumped the gob into a new bin. It took minutes for the lively reds to disappear into the bedding. I'm not sure it's possible (no matter how dark your garage) to miss a pound of worms.

I'm assuming the new bin you prepared contained mostly bedding (shredded paper, cardboard, etc.). It should be fairly easy to make a pile, shine a light over it and wait for the worms to burrow to the bottom.

I've read stories of bad worm buying experiences, but never something quite like this. Hope you get things sorted out.

Andrew

FYI,
steamyb

Sorry you are not getting started with your worms right away! Please let us know what the supplier says, and when or if, they reply.

I went through the compost bin when I go home. I took out all the shredded paper and cardboard and put it in a 5 gallon pail...checking it carefully for worms as I went. Nothing there. Then I started digging through the composted manure I had put in the bottom of the bin....nothing there either...I went all the way down to the newspaper layer I had put on the bottom...no dice. It did give me a chance to put bricks in my catch bucket to help keep my worm bin out of the collected tea...

You can quote me on that.

Andrew

The company was Vermitechnology Unlimited out of Florida. Would I shop there again? No. But I would say that he did try and make things right.

Did they offer any explanation on why you did not receive any worms? Is it possible they sent you their "Egg capsule material" instead? Here's their description:

"Most of the egg capsules are completely covered with the casting material and you do not realize there are egg capsules."

I believe this is true to some extent, but I'm pretty sure you should be able to spot quite a few cocoons in a batch of material that's supposed to contain a thousand of them. Maybe you should keep that material moist and warm for a while to see if worms start hatching out.

Andrew

It's very possible to miss cocoons, unless you know what you are looking for. Personally, I was shocked at exactly how small they are and how innocuous they look. If I didn't know what I was looking for, I would have never found it.

Good advice, regarding keeping it going, just to see what happens. It's hard to believe someone would send a batch of "worms" that contained NO worms.