What Can Be Fed To Composting Earthworms?

Unlike the magnificent carnivores, the Red Wiggler (eisenia foetida) earthworms used in vermiculture have very small mouths and do not have the greatest teeth. In fact they do not have any teeth at all! Thus, even though they can eat almost anything that was once alive, it may take them a long time to do it. For example, if you give them a raw carrot they will not be able to do much with it until it starts to decompose and softens up a bit. On the other hand, earthworms will devourer a cooked carrot in a few days. Along the same lines, composting earthworms love newspaper and can consume large quantities of it in a relatively little time; however, they cannot handle paper that is matted together. Thus, newspaper should be shredded before it is feed to earthworms. If you do not have a paper shredder you can add single sheets of newspaper to a wormery as long as they are separated from each other by the other organic material in the worm's bedding. Along the same lines, earthworms love cardboard. If you add large pieces of cardboard to your worm bins the worms will love to live in it but they will not be able to eat it until it softens up and starts to decompose. To clarify this issue, I should point out that earthworms are actually eating the protozoa and microorganisms that cover the newspaper and cardboard, the paper simply gets consumed in the process. A lot has been written about what earthworms like and dislike. For example, they are not supposed to like citrus fruit, especially the skins. On the contrary, I have found that my worms love the pulp of an orange and will also consume the rinds as soon as they soften up. The Red Wiggler Earthworms used for composting kitchen waste, however, would not do well if feed nothing but, or primarily, citrus skins or citrus pulp because large quantities of this organic material would make the worms bedding to acidic. In this respect, everything in moderation applies to earthworm farming. Contrary to what you may have been told, composting Red Wiggler Earthworms also will eat any meat product, the rottener the better! Just be sure to bury the meat and other similar items in the bedding so that they will not attract flies. Again, everything in moderation is the rule here. If you give your composting earthworms more than they can eat (over feed them with meat products) the bins will begin to smell bad which, of course, is a problem if your worm bin is indoors. With respect to home vermiculture, the only type of kitchen waste that should not be put in a worm bin is large quantities of fatty substances like grease, lard and butter. Small quantities of these products are OK and need not be separated from the other table scrapes you feed worms. In short, you can feed your Earthworms almost anything from your kitchen, even egg shells! Over wet, worm bedding can be a problem in home wormeries because vegetable scraps, which are excellent food for composting Earthworms, are 80% water. As a result, the bedding of worms that are feed primarily vegetable scraps will rapidly become muddy. The answer, is to place layers of threaded newspaper between the layers of kitchen waste. This practice also will provide a more favorable carbon/nitrogen balance in the worm’s bedding because the high nitrogen content of the vegetable waste is offset by the carbon rich newspaper. What should not be fed to Earthworms? Any leaf that has an aromatic aroma is not suitable for vermiculture. This includes pine and redwood needles and eucalyptus and pepper wood leaves. Redwood and cedar chips also should be avoided in vermiculture. Very large volumes of dairy and meat products should not be fed to your Earthworms because worms have a difficult time digesting high concentrations of oil and fat. However, as discussed above, small amounts of these ingredients are well tolerated and there is no reason to separate them from the other table scraps that you feed your worms.