What Do Worms Eat? Make Compost Out Of Garbage.

If you are just starting a worm bin, you may wonder what do worms eat.

Worms will eat anything that was once alive. They are the best little composters on the planet. But, what should you feed your composting worms? How do you have happy worms and a healthy worm bin?

The list of things you can feed your worm farm may surprise you. Let’s explore what to feed your new pets in your worm bin.

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Why Compost With Worms?

So much of what we throw away is compostable and what better way to compost than to feed it to your worms?

Worms will turn your organic waste into a rich organic fertilizer that will save you from having to buy fertilizer from the store to feed your plants.

Worms can be used to compost in a very small area. Even if you don’t have a large backyard to compost mounds of organic material you can still compost your organic waste.

Besides, worm castings is some of the best fertilizer for your plants. It is alive with microorganisms and good bacteria that your plants just love.

This garden gold is a rich food for your garden and can be applied right on your garden, mixed into your potting or planting soil, or made into fantastic worm tea or leachate which can be poured on your soil as a liquid fertilizer.

Worm farming (raising worms) is the easiest way to make compost. No digging and turning. No waiting months for the compost. Your red worms will get right to work for you and have rich plant food in no time, all while eating your garbage.

Vermicomposting

My adventure with vermicomposting (raising worms for the rich fertilizer they produce) began over 30 years ago. I had a vegetable garden and wanted a way to save on fertilizer and grow more organically. So, I got a “Can-O-Worms” worm bin.

I have been using it all that time and it is still going strong.

Some people want to make a DIY worm bin, but you don’t save that much money and the worm bin I have is far superior to any of the DIY designs I have seen.

You can even get a small worm composter that will fit in the cabinet under your sink.

So, now that you know what you can put your worms in, let’s discuss what to feed your new little friends.

Water

Like all living things worms need water, but not too much. If you squeeze a clump of bedding, it should feel like a damp sponge. If you are getting too much pooling in the bottom or runoff, you should put some dry bedding in to soak up the extra moisture.

What Is Bedding?

Food can be very watery, especially things like melons and lettuce. Bedding is a material that will help soak up some of that water. Shredded newspaper, hay, dry grass clippings, dry leaves, These are just a few of the things you can use as bedding to soak up all that moisture in your worm bin.

What Do Worms Eat?

Like every living thing, they like a varied diet. And the more varied the diet, the better the resulting compost will be. So, what can you feed them?

There are so many choices of good food for your new composting friends.

Your worms can reduce the garbage you take out to the curb by almost half! So, let’s go over some of the things they can eat and what to feed worms.

Tip: Cutting everything into smallish pieces allows the worms to consume it quickly.

All your fruit and vegetable scraps. Carrot peels, potato skins, cauliflower and broccoli leaves and stalks, and the outside leaves of lettuce, cabbage, and kale. Banana peels and the bruised part of the banana you don’t want to eat. The half-eaten apple your toddler left, and the wilted celery from the back of the refrigerator.
Spoiled food. Yep, that’s fine. Clean out that refrigerator and don’t put it in the trash. (just check the list of no-no’s first.)
Leftover bread, pasta, rice, and oatmeal.
Garden discard – the outer leaves from the cabbage or mustard greens you just picked, the sweet potato vine when you harvest the sweet potatoes.
Corn silk, corn husks, and fresh corn cobs. It does take them a while to eat the whole cob, but they will eat it all.
Eggshells.
Coffee and tea grounds, filters included.
Hair from people and pets.
Paper. Newspaper black and white pages only, cardboard, pizza boxes, cardboard egg cartons, Paper grocery bags, and paper towels.
Dry leaves
Grass clippings and weeds – no pesticides or herbicides.
Wood mulch (not the colored stuff)
Straw or hay (make sure it is organic -herbicides are now in a lot of these products and are disastrous to your vegetable garden)
Manure – this is best from animals who graze – cows, sheep, rabbits, horses, alpacas, and llamas– Chicken and duck hay from the coop is fine in small amounts at a time – But never from animals who have been given de-worming medication as…well they are worms and it could kill them!

Do worms have favorite foods?

Don’t we all? Yes, they seem to be attracted to some foods more than others, such as:

apples
avocados
banana
berries
cucumbers
melons
pumpkins
squash
tomatoes

Words. How to feed worms for your vegetable garden.

What Food To Avoid

Some will say no onions or citrus. These are actually alright in small amounts, but you don’t want to fill your bin with them after a day of juicing gallons of OJ. That can change the PH of your bin.

Others will tell you no processed foods. Once again, in moderation, it’s not a big deal.

The same goes for spicy food. A whole bowl of jalapenos at once is probably not a good idea.

No-Nos

Spicy food, chili, onion and garlic
Meat and milk products & Oils– these will make your worm bin stink and attract flies.
Bones – they don’t break down.
Citrus or acidic foods – though small amounts are OK.
Salt – too much salt is harmful to worms.
Poisonous plants – tomato, potato, and other nightshade plants are poisonous.
Dog and cat feces – these can contain some pretty nasty microorganisms.
Of course, Plastic, Glass, Metals, and other things that do not break down.

How Often Should I Feed My Worms?

Start by feeding them a small handful of food waste at a time, and check them every day or two. When you see them covering the last batch of food you fed them, it’s time to feed them another handful.

How Much Should I Feed My Red Worms?

Feeding your worms the right amount will make the healthiest environment for your worms.

If you feed them too much, your worms will only eat what they want, but then the food they don’t eat will sit there and mold and smell and attract fruit flies.

But they should always have some food to eat.

How much will worms eat? Each day they will eat approximately half their body weight in food. That means, if you have 1000 red composting worms, they will weigh about a pound. So, they can consume approximately 1/2 pound of food a day.

When you first get them, they will eat less as the bedding needs to get colonized by microorganisms that will make your worms happy. But as they adjust and start reproducing, their food intake will increase.

How Do I Know If My Worms Are Hungry?

Once you know what do worms eat, you need to know how to tell if they are hungry. If your worms are all congregated on the last of the food, you know it is time to feed them some more.

Don’t wait until there is no more food before you feed them again.

Should You Bury The Worm’s Food?

Burying food in indoor bins helps reduce pests like fruit flies and house flies from helping themselves to a snack. If you have an outdoor bin, you don’t need to bother.

What Do You Do With The Extra Food You Have?

If you have extra food and the worms are not ready for more fresh food, you can put it in bags (label it) and keep it in your freezer until your worms are ready for more.

Frozen food will be extra watery so you will want to pour off the excess water and add a bit more dry material when it is added to the bin.

Related>> Build Your Own Worm Tower.

What If Your Worm Bin Is Too Wet?

All worm bins should have a bottom drain so the liquid does not build up and your worms drown. But your bin can still get too wet.

A lot of fruits and vegetables contain a large amount of moisture. If your worm bin is draining out a lot of moisture, you need to add more dry material – bedding. Shredded paper, dry leaves, hay, even hay you make yourself, dry grass clippings. (remember, no chemicals)

Feel with a finger to the bottom of the tray/bin to see if there is any standing water. Always make sure it is draining properly and the drain has not become clogged.

If your worm bin smells, being too wet is likely the cause. Add some dry bedding quickly.

Cartoon worm and watermelon. What do worms eat?

How Long Can Worms Go Without Feeding Them?

So, you want to go on vacation without having to get a worm sitter, I get it.

Well, here is the good news. You can put fresh bedding in the bin and feed them right before you leave and worms can go about 4 weeks without additional food.

They will go back through and eat any bedding or food they missed, and that will sustain them until you return.

How To Keep Worms Happy.

Worms are the best pets in the world. They are simple creatures that don’t need too much to make them happy.

They need a warm place to live. It needs to be above 40° F (4.4°C) (don’t let them freeze) and below 90° F. In the shade and with good air circulation. (They will live above 90°F (32.2°C) but will slow their feeding and won’t be happy)

Their environment needs to be moist, but not wet. And they need food.

But you don’t have to buy these pets special food, they will be perfectly happy eating what you don’t want.

The Best Worm Food For Reproduction.

Keeping your worms happy is the best way to “get more worms”. When your worms are comfortable, and have a healthy, varied diet they will multiply.

This is an awesome way to keep your worm bin populated with worms and can even give you extra, that you can add to worm towers in your garden.

Conclusion:

Once you know what worms eat and how easy it is to raise your own composting worms, I think you will realize that you need to be raising worms.

I hope you find raising worms as fulfilling as I do. I’m not putting my food and garden waste into the landfill and I’m saving money on fertilizer. Raising worms is a win-win in my book and it is so easy even a child can do it.

Isn’t it about time you started your own worm farm?

Get your own worms and worm bin today and start making garden gold.