Hot Worms!
The heat is here in Australia, so don't forget your composting companions. Worms can suffer a lot in the heat and we need to take a little extra care of them.
Of course, the first thing to do is to make sure your worm farm is in the shade. Always leave the tap open to allow excess liquid to escape. Liquids can retain heat within the farm.
Saying that, its good to add some cool water every day, morning and evening. Not enough to flood the farm, just to help cool.
Ice packs are great for cooling a worm farm. Your worms will congregate around them. I've found that placing the ice packs in the middle of the farm works better than placing them on the uppermost layer.
Another thing is to leave the top open a couple of centimeters to allow hot air to escape.
Also, if you have a tower type worm farm, make sure that there is something in the bottom layer so that the worms can climb up should the tap become clogged and liquid accumulate. I've list a batch of worms that way. Their instinct is to dive down in the heat and they can become trapped in the built up liquid and drown.
Cleaning up a mass of drowned worms is not pleasant.
One other thing you can do is to cover the worm farm with a coarse fabric such as hessian or sack cloth. Keep dampening this throughout the day. Evaporation will cool the worm farm. That's my next job.
Keep them happy and they will breed well in the warm weather and reward you with a little extra love on return.
I had this happen to my worm farm last summer. I had the in what I though was a shady spot under their house but just before summer solstice the sun hit them for about an hour late in the afternoon and cooked the poor little fellas 😔
Its easy to do. Ive let it happen several times
I lost a thriving farm in the heat. 😔
Ours are holding on. Really huddling around those ice packs though. I'm sure I heard the clink of martini glasses when I went to check last night