What To Not Feed Worms
- Meats, bones, fat and anything oily or greasy.
- Dairy products including butter, sour cream, milk, whole eggs (egg shells are ok) and cheese.
- Canned sauces, peanut butter and other processed food.
- Citrus foods like lemons, limes and oranges.
- Onions and garlic.
- Spicy foods such as hot peppers.
What shouldn’t you put in a worm farm?
Items you cannot compost in a worm bin:
Lemon, lime, orange or other citrus peels and juice (in excess this will make the soil too acidic) Onions and garlic (a good rule of thumb is if it makes you smell, it makes your worm bin smell) Meat, fats, grease, bones or oils (no butter, lard, stocks, soups, etc)
What materials do earthworms not eat?
You should never add meat, animal products, dairy products, or greasy, oily foods to the worm bin. The oils, meat, and milk become rancid as they decompose. Rotting oils cause a powerful and unpleasant odor.
What do worms like to eat most?
DO feed your worms a rich assortment of the following fruit, vegetable, and organic waste, including:
- Fruit and vegetable peels, rinds and cores.
- Egg shells.
- Coffee grounds and filters.
- Tea bags.
- Aged manure from any vegetable-eating animal (rabbits, horses, cows, llamas, etc.)
What can you feed worms to keep alive?
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.
What do worms hate?
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.
Can I feed worms Rice?
Bread, rice, pasta, processed foods – you can add the odd crust or bits of cooked rice off the dinner plate, but don’t add lots of starchy foods. Worms don’t like them and they may go off or attract pests. Acidic foods – citrus, pineapple, garlic and onions.
Can worms eat banana peels?
Banana peels are an excellent worm food.
Can worms eat potato peels?
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.
Can worms eat bread?
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. However, these starchy foods can end up a gooey mess.
Do worms eat eggshells?
Eggshells as food for composting worms
Composting worms can absolutely be fed with crushed shells from eggs. You should know that compost worms will eat just about anything that’s organic (all except meat, seafood, poultry, dairy, oily, or spicy stuff).
Can worms eat yogurt?
Worms are unable to eat dairy (ice cream, cheese, and yogurt), meat, or bones.
Can worms eat tea bags?
Tea Bags: Yes! The tea bags will start to break down in the worm bin, and the worms will finish off the contents. The string and paper tab might not break down as quickly. You can rip them off before saving a tea bag.
How do I know if my worms are happy?
You can tell that your compost worms are happy and healthy by looking out for three signs:
- They reproduce. Worms can easily double their population every 90 days, given the right environment.
- They produce compost. Worms need to eat to produce worm castings.
- The compost does not stink.
Do worms like coffee?
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.
What to feed worms to make them big?
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.
Can worms eat honey?
Yeah, just do it in small amounts. Honey can and will ferment, and become alcoholic, and the worms prefer their honey non-alcoholic.
Do worms like light or dark?
Worm Experiment Results
Worms do NOT like light! They prefer dark. All of the worms hurried into the corner furthest from the light and huddled together!
Do worms like sugar?
Sugar- Keep sugar to a minimum, especially processed sugars. Your worms actually feed mostly on the bacteria cultures that develop on food that rots and sugar creates a rich environment for the bacteria.
Can worms eat onions?
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.
Can worms eat carrots?
Worms frequently wait for food scraps, such as carrots, to rot. The carrots will be broken down by soil microorganisms, and worms will eat them as well. Carrot peels are ideal since they are thin and provide ample surface area for the worms to gnaw on.