Vermicoast

Disclaimer: Not everyone in the worm industry will agree with my views on this post!

Almost all foods that you eat and enjoy the worms will, too.  I hope you are buying and eating organically now.  The food scraps you will be feeding to your worms in their bin are best suited to the worm’s good health and performance if they are all organic. This is not to say the worms will not tolerate the occasional lapse of part of bags of very salty chips. They do like salt (saline) in small amounts.  The entire bag, which has become outdated in your cupboard, is not the best worm food all at one go.

If you can, it is best to have a balance of foods, for the worms.  Just as you prefer to have a wide variety of foods in your diet, the worms will, too.  All fruits and vegetables are wonderful worm food.  As I have mentioned before the longer those scraps can be placed in the sun, the soupier they will become and the faster the worms can ingest them.

Over the years, I have read and heard said that there are foods a worm bin should not have placed into it. These have included meats, cheeses, fats, oils and butter.  You get the idea.  Let me share with you what does happen in the worm bin to these foods.

The Meats: they will breakdown fast. This occurs because there will be flies attracted to them and in turn, those flies will lay eggs. The eggs turn into maggots.  OK, I do know what you are thinking, which is: I don’t want maggots anywhere near me or my worm bin! I am sure you will recall the goal in any worm bin is to get a large particulate piece of matter down to the size it will fit into a microscopic worm’s mouth. All the helpers in the bin are busy doing this.  Maggots are no different.  Once their role is finished, they simply fly away and will not harm you or the worms.  I do know that other worm breeders will or may tell you something else entirely, but I have found in the past 21 years, the maggots have harmed neither the worms nor me.

The Cheeses:  This is an interesting one for me as I have had varied experiences with different cheeses.  Cheese, which is pasteurized and organic, is fine for the worms.  One reason is that it is loaded with the calcium, which they require to replicate themselves.  Another reason is they like it and it will breakdown well in their bin.  Cheese that has been made into singles or a in processed block of it, which you can use, as much as you need at a time, is not good worm food.  I had a block of this, which was leftover from a party.  It outdated in the refrigerator and I put it into the worm bin, a large bin.  That block of cheese remained in the same pristine state through 20 harvests of that bin.  It was never broken down.  After that 20^th harvest, I left it out of the bin for a day or two.  I noticed several things about it: flies never landed on it, the sun did not melt it and ants did not go near it.  I concluded that this type of cheese was not real food!  This is not a good food choice for people or the worms.  Unfortunately, it never broke down in the hot compost pile either and I finally had to send it to the landfill.  I will never buy this type of cheese ever.

Oils and Fats: Yes, I do know there are good ones and ones that are not good for us to consume.  I steer clear of the bad oils and bad fats in my diet as you will for your worms.  All natural oils are OK in your bin, as are the fats, not a whole bottle at once though.  No matter how tempting it might be to dump a bottle of oil, which has ‘gone off’, and is old and stale do not do this. Hold off and pour it instead, into the worm’s food pail and let it mix with the other organic(s) for them.

Bones:  These are also full of calcium for your worms.  For me, here at Vermicoast, I do put them into the bins.  The long hollow bones will breakdown well over time, as they are softer than ribs are.  Time being a relative issue for me, as I do not care how long it takes them to breakdown. Ten harvests or twenty, it does not matter to me at all.  I simply harvest, add the bones, which have not broken down back into the bin when I restart it. Another way I have used the bones is to allow them to dry out in the oven as it cools down. This makes them very brittle. Once that happens, I place them into a brown paper bag and when I am frustrated about something I get the bag out and whack it with a flat shovel.   Then I have an instant supply of pulverized bones, which are a rich source of calcium for the worms.  I add this to every bin as long as the supply lasts, about 1/2 an ounce per bin per week.

To Recap:

> Meats:  It is up to you if you want to add them or not. You can be adventurous, do it, and see how you can handle the fall out as mentioned above.

> Cheeses:  Once again, the choice is yours in what you will buy and feed to your family and yourself.  If there is any left over do let the worms have the organic cheeses.  Perhaps some day the processed cheeses will be outlawed.

> Fats and Oils:  Pick the ones you know will be tasty for your household. Anything left over is fine for your worms.

I’ll be back in a few days and will have some questions and answers I have gathered over the years from those who have emailed me or have spoken up with a question or two at speaking engagements I have presented.

I hope you are enjoying your worms and will continue to learn from them.

~Shel