Babies in Peril!

I have been (slowly) reading Sandra Wiese's book, The Best Place for Garbage (see previous post).  [I'm not a very fast reader and with 4 kids don't get as many quiet moments to sit down with a good book.] One of many things I love about it is that the enthusiasm she conveys for her topic is TOTALLY infectious.  Reading the first couple sections I started to get all excited about various applications for vermicomposting and even started wondering what the grocery store at the bottom of the road does with all their waste fruit and veggies!  And then wondering what the lady across the road does with her goat, chicken and goose manure.  And then I came back to the reality of my situation - a brand new vermicomposter with family and work responsibilities and more hobbies than there are hours in the day.

And then several days ago I had a bit of a panic.  I drew off the lechate (what a great word -- the liquid that's being generated from the vermicomposting process) and as I was diluting it to use on my houseplants I realized there were a bunch of dead baby worms in it.  AAAkkk!  It had been 3 days since I'd drained any off, so I worried that I was doing something wrong that was driving them out of the food/bed or that I wasn't draining it quickly enough and they were drowning.

  Unfortunately I have already done some of the things Wiese says newbie vermicomposters shouldn't do.  Specifically (1) purchasing one of these commercial tiered bins, (2) including urine in the bin (potential for too much nitrogen and therefore too much heat for the worms), (3) using something other than shredded paper for bedding (I've added drier lint and several handfuls of leaves from outside).  I also worried that by pureeing banana peels and so forth I was reducing aeration and suffocating them.

So here I am panicking because I have dead babies and a list of no-no's.  So today I pulled the top bin off and checked the collecting tray.  Sure enough there were dead babies in the lechate again, but also lots of live ones swimming and crawling around.  I have avoided messing around in the working tray for fear of disturbing the wormies too much.  I decided I needed to check to see if everything was ok, so I started gently lifting bits of the contents of the tray.  Live wiggly babies and adult worms all over the place!  Wow!!  Some of the lower layers aren't recognizable anymore as the stuff I put in.  Hurray!

What to do?  I'm not sure if
(a) I just need more bedding so they're more likely to stay up in the working tray or
(b) if I need to just check the tray daily OR
(c) if I just need to accept that there will be some losses and chalk it up to natural selection.

Suggestions welcome! 

I will be buying a paper shredder, I think, since this is something Wiese is adamant about: newbies should use shredded paper as bedding.