Just saw this thread, and wanted to update on my success. My first Canadian nightcrawler attempt failed. I started another one this spring. This culture seems to be going okay. I see some babies now, but they definitely reproduce slowly, and they aren't the best at composting. I built a wood box ~ 1 meter long X ~ 0.7 meter deep X ~ 0.5 meter tall. The box has holes drilled in the base for drainage and a screen covering the holes to prevent escape. This box sits on two cinderblocks, and drains into a jar in my kitchen. I started with a peat substrate about 10 cm deep and about 200 worms.
At first I added the vegetable scraps to the surface, and then layered with cardboard or newspaper. (dividing the surface into thirds, hoping to cycle through sides. Where I could add waste in one section, let them chew in another third, and dig for worms in the last third. This worked for awhile and the worms seemed robust. It turned out they couldn't keep up with my waste production. This resulted in overloaded food sections and a fruitfly explosion (thousands!)
At this point I sealed the box with a few cloth covered air holes for about 3 weeks. When I cautiously opened the box, I found my worms were doing quite well, although there was no food left. So I added some food, less than I ever did with my redworms. In my experience they do like the food to be on the surface, but you can cover it with a light (about 2 cm) layer of substrate. If you bury it too deep, it seems to get composted slower. Cutting up stuff more finely sounds like a great idea that I'm going to start to employ. The worms tend to hang out at the very base, so you really have to dig to find them. This is gets annoying as the substrate level increases.
As originally stated I live in a basement so it's generally quite cool. When I open the wood box the air inside feels cooler than my apartment. I don't know why this is, possibly evaporative, the moisture or something to do with the wood. I have yet to put a number on the temperature difference, and it could be my imagination.
Downsides would be:
-They clearly aren't the fastest reproducers, but I don't have a heavy worm requirement at the moment so it's working for me
-They can't keep up with my compost production. I more or less only add food weekly.
-The light burying of substrate makes fruit flies and other pests slightly more of a pain, but the tight-fitting easily sealable lid makes this manageable if a problem occurs.
-The worm farm is quite large and takes up a lot of space (But the box is well-made, covered with a table cloth and serves as a chair or sturdy surface when needed).