Some “DON'TS” in the feeding of worms are: Do not add salty or oily foods. Do not add tomatoes or potatoes.
Foods that Composting Worms Love
They will happily digest a wide variety of organic plant material into nutrient rich worm castings. I put old lettuce in there, rotten vegetables, potato peels, fruit, grass clipping, and leaves, just to name a few. They especially love the fruit.
Yeah, yeah, this is a pretty huge category, but your worms will take to pretty much any veggie waste you create during meal preparation. Carrot peelings, potato skins, broccoli and cauliflower stalks, lettuce, kale, even onion peels (in limited quantities) are perfect for the worm bin.
Worms hate: meat or fish, cheese, butter, greasy food, animal waste, spicy and salty foods, citrus.” The food-to-worm ratio is not precise, nor is the amount of castings they will produce. The rule of thumb is that a pound of worms will eat one to two pounds of food in a week.
Feed your worms vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags, and crushed eggshells. Avoid meat, fish, dairy products, citrus, twigs, and branches.
Worms will eat anything that was once living, Leftover vegetable scraps, fruit and vegetable peelings. Tea leaves / bags and coffee grounds.
Still, it is worth noting that the properties of the chemical solanine in potatoes may also inhibit the effectiveness of the microbes the worms rely on in the bin. As far as best practices go, potatoes are better thrown into the hot compost pile rather than into the worm bin.
Compost worms benefit from a balanced diet. They will eat most normal kitchen fruit and vegetable scraps. Avoid feeding the worms large quantities of meat, citrus, onions and dairy foods. Some processed food also contains preservatives, which discourage the worms from eating it.
Bananas are a great and inexpensive snack for both us and our worms. Those peels are desirable to compost worms no matter what shape they're in. They'll make short work of what otherwise would have taken up space in your trash.
Over-Feeding Causes Odors
The most noticeable sign of overfeeding is a foul odor. Worm bins should have an earthy smell. If your nose is offended, your worm bin needs improvement. The worms' job is to eat the food before it gets super-rotten and stinky.
Worms can eat these foods in moderation: Coffee grounds, coffee filters, tea leaves, tea bags, pasta (without sauce), rice (no oil), breads (minimal).
What can I compost in a worm farm? Grains, cooked or uncooked (rice, oats, barley, wheat, etc.) The smaller the pieces, the quicker they'll break down in the compost pile.
It's definitely safe for your worms to eat (if humans can, why can't they, right?). You can even compost paper coffee filters, too, as they are biodegradable! So, don't be afraid to feed some to your worms and enrich your soil with coffee grounds. It will definitely be a good addition to their diet.
Soil-borne bacteria and fungi break down the various chemical components of coffee grounds after several months. Earthworms are also able to use this food source. Earthworms consume coffee grounds and deposit them deep in soil.
Oranges are highly acidic and can harm the worms. They throw off the pH balance in the bin, which can cause noxious odors and even worm die-off. Your bin can probably handle orange peels, pulp and flesh in small quantities.
Yes! You can add dry grass clippings and deciduous leaves to your worm farm, as long as you keep food scraps and dry waste balanced. Avoid adding fresh lawn clippings, evergreen or native leaves, and sticks or woody stems.
Banana. Banana: Known to be a natural laxative, banana is the most easily available and highly effective food to help you deal with stomach problems. Right from constipation and diarrhoea to acidity and intestinal worms, it helps you to fight infections as well.
"Worms love hair. They love lint from the dryer and they love nails." Gellert mixes these ingredients up with coffee grounds and other organic waste.
However, before they die the female worms lay tiny eggs around the anus. This tends to be at night when you are warm and still in bed. The eggs are too small to see, but cause an itch around the anus.
Worms can't digest meat proteins or lactose, so no dairy products either, like milk or cheese. While worms do like egg shells, the egg cannot go in the bin. Citrus and salt can actually harm the skin of the worms.