Storing Night Crawlers ???

[Kent]

My go-to since I have been a small kid is a styrofoam cooler (with a couple of small holes drilled in the top) with tree leaves and nothing else.  I wet the leaves down before putting them in the container.  Just damp....not dripping!  I do "pack" the leaves down before adding the worms.  Not hard, but just to eliminate most of the air spaces from the leave layers.  I keep it in my garage (about 6 months of the year) or basement cold storage (in winter and during July/Aug).  It is surprising how much heat the worms can take in those leaves.  I mist the top layer of leaves occasionally with a spray bottle, but maybe 3-4 times/YEAR.  I tried the cornmeal, and it just got moldy and smelled bad.  The worms eat the leaves and I'll switch out the leaves in the fall if I have any worms left.  Simple, easy, low maintenance.

I must have done something wrong, because I thought that I had followed these instructions and placed the Styrofoam cooler in my basement.  I have been checking them to make sure they didn't smell (which, of course, would mean that they had died) and lightly sprayed the surface leaves, a couple times.  Today, I decided to actually look at the night crawlers.  I was disappointed to find that they had all died.  One plus, I suppose, is that they never did smell!