How to properly pick worms?

Question

I am not sure if this will fit here or on lifehacks.SE.

I have an African night crawler escaping from my vermicompost bin and it's really hard to pick them up carefully without hurting them.

Things that I've tried so far:

1. Pick them using my hand - This takes a lot of time, specially if they are on the wet places.
2. Use broom and dustpan to transfer them back to my bin - it seems that I'm still hurting them.

My question is how do I quickly transfer worms to my bin without hurting them? Is there a proper way to transfer them?

Answer 1

There was a study conducted by the Norwegian government that concluded that worms do not feel pain but exhibit reflex avoidance behaviour. They simply do not have the nerve density to feel pain as we do. That being said they can still learn avoidance behaviour.

The worm nervous system shows that nerves are concentrated around the head so it seems logical to avoid that region in picking them up.

That worms are leaving your bin indicates the possibility that your bin is becoming toxic due to overfeeding.