Worm food: What to feed and what NOT to feed worms!
What to Feed the Worms
When it comes to feeding, just remember, “anything that was once living can be fed to the worms” (Nancarrow 98).
These include:
– Egg and avocado shells.
– Teabags and coffee filters. (remove the staple)
– Meat in very small amounts. Due to the flesh rotting and causing odours. (I choose not to feed my worms farm meat products)
– Any vegetable and a majority of fruits.
– Carbon – newspapers, cardboard. Be sure to moisten and tear into small strips
(a paper shredder comes in handy for this) prior to adding to your farm. Heavily inked paper is not advised.
– Unprocessed bran. This helps to clear out their systems and help to maintain a healthy worm farm.
– Mushrooms.
– Bananas.
– And, of course, leftovers!
But keep the following out of the worm farm:
– Hair.
– Fresh manures and wastes. These often have active vermicides in them so if you added these to your worm farm you would end up killing your entire population over night. If you are unsure of the age of the manure you would like to use be cautious and wait
– the maximum time (3 months) for the vermicides to dissipate.
– Heavily spiced foods.
– High concentrations of fats, salts, vinegars.
To find out all the foods you should and shouldn’t be feeding the composting worms check out the new book
“Worm Farming for Beginners”.
Have a look at the contents page to discover just what is needed to begin your own Vermiculture endeavour!