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. These foods won't harm your worms, but they will avoid them and those scraps will break down and rot in the bin.
Acidic foods - citrus, pineapple, garlic and onions. Spicy foods - worms are plain eaters, and don't like spicy food such as chillies, chives, curries etc. Chemicals - avoid any materials contaminated with toxic chemicals, such as sawdust from treated wood, paper towel used with cleaning sprays, disinfectant wipes etc.
Worms will eat a wide variety of organic materials such as paper, manure, fruit and vegetable waste, grains, coffee grounds, and ground yard wastes. While worms will eat meat and dairy products, it is best not to feed these materials or oily foods to worms, due to potential odor and pest problems.
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.
Banana peels are an excellent worm food.
Eat more raw garlic, pumpkin seeds, pomegranates, beets, and carrots, all of which have been used traditionally to kill parasites. In one study, researchers found that a mixture of honey and papaya seeds cleared stools of parasites in 23 out of 30 subjects.
Worms will eat anything that was once living, Leftover vegetable scraps, fruit and vegetable peelings. Tea leaves / bags and coffee grounds.
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. Be sure to cut cores in half and break down the pumpkin you forgot to eat.
The nerves detect light, vibrations and even some tastes. The earthworm's body is covered with chemoreceptors. These are cells that allow the earthworm to taste things and are tiny sense organs which detect chemicals in the soil.
The molds that form on most vegetables are usually OK, but the molds on some fruit and bread can be problematic. If you're in doubt, try a small amount first and see if the worms are bothered by it. If not, then it's probably OK to use it, otherwise, you should put them into your backyard bin instead.
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.
Worms need food!
They will eat some of their bedding, but they really love scraps of fruit and vegetables. Worms will eat the parts you won't, like cores and peels. Don't feed them too much or too often at first. A yogurt container full of scraps once a week will be enough.
If you find yourself faced with worms being sluggish or not eating, the most likely problems are a low worm population in your bin, hot or cold air temperatures causing the worms to slow down, or feeding practices that need to be adjusted.
The worms' job is to eat the food before it gets super-rotten and stinky. If you add too much food at a time, they cannot keep up. Too much food can also push the air out of the bin, leading to foul-smelling anaerobic decomposition.
Tomatoes are slightly acidic, but worms still seem to like it and will tolerate it just fine in moderation.
Dairy products such as milk, cheese, and yogurt should never go into a worm bin. Even non-fat varieties are bad for composting worms. Therefore, dispose of meat, bones, gristle, and dairy products in the trash.
Yes, in moderation, bread, and in fact, all grain based foods, are worthy of your worms' processing power. Stale bread remains just as full of nutrients and building blocks for worm growth as the fresh stuff.
The rolled oats, cornmeal, and alfalfa work together to plump up your worms quickly. The finer this mix is powdered, the quicker your worms will eat it up and fatten up. Moisten your worm bedding and then sprinkle it over the bedding surface.
Eggshells provide calcium, which reduces acidity in the bin. This prevents high acid conditions that can harm your worms. Also, crushed eggshells provide grit to aid the worms' digestion. And, it is believed that eggshells help worms in the reproductive process.
Worms love to eat coffee grounds, and that's great news for your garden. Add coffee grounds to your compost pile to help attract worms, which help speed up the process of turning food scraps into compost. You can also add coffee grounds directly to the soil, but you'll have to be careful not to overdo it.
Eggshells as food for composting worms
Composting worms can absolutely be fed with crushed shells from eggs.
Parasites feed off of sugary foods (Cookies, cakes, sweeteners), and foods that convert to sugar quickly (grains, pasta, wheat, rice). Eating foods high in sugar will worsen a parasitic infection, causing it to spread quicker.
For most people, treatment will involve taking a single dose of a medication called mebendazole to kill the worms. If necessary, another dose can be taken after 2 weeks. During treatment and for a few weeks afterwards, it's also important to follow strict hygiene measures to avoid spreading the threadworm eggs.
Fungi and Viruses. Cinnamon kills many disease-causing fungi and viruses Preliminary results from test tube and animal studies suggest that cinnamon oil and cinnamon extract have anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, and anti-parasitic properties.