Understanding the basics so you can feed worms properly is vital to the success of a worm farm. This also includes what food is added, the quantity, preparation and placement in the bin. And if you do make a mistake, several worm farm problems such as a bad smell or a toxic environment can arise. So what do worms eat? Worms will eat anything organic. However, there are some foods you should avoid.
What Do Worms Eat – The Basics
Worms thrive on a balanced diet and prefer to eat their food as it begins to decompose. Keep a balance of green and brown foods.
Feed your worms fresh fruit and vegetable scraps. Limit foods high in acidity. Worms also don’t like strong flavors, such as citrus, garlic and onion. Be careful that fruit has no insecticides on it as this can kill your worms
Add egg shells. This helps to neutralize the pH levels in your worm bin. You can also add agricultural lime if needed. Egg shells are high in calcium as well which is beneficial to the worm farm. Feeding worms a lot of fruit will increase the acidity in the bin due to its the high sugar content.
Add carbon for worm bin bedding including shredded paper, egg cartons and cardboard. When in doubt, add more paper. Paper and cardboard should be shredded and soaked in water first.
Avoid feeding worms meat, dairy, and oils. While worms will eat meat and dairy products, these foods will create a bad odor and attract pests.
Don’t offer salty or spicy foods, or foods with preservatives. Worms breathe through their skin, and certain food can irritate that process
Add grains and grain products in moderation. Grains should be ground up before adding into the worm bin. Be careful not to add too much as grain may attract rodents.
The Ultimate Worm Farm Guide for Beginners
Are you thinking about starting a worm farm? This guide will teach you everything you need to know about how to start a worm farm.
Worm Farm Food List – What Do Worms Eat?
Here’s a list of what to feed worms, and what not to feed worms:
Source: thealternative.in
What do worms eat? Add:
- Kitchen greens and vegetable scrapings
- Potato and other vegetable peels
- All fruit
- Crushed egg shells
- Shredded paper and cardboard
- Hair and nail clippings
- Cotton rags
- Leaves
- Cereals
- Grain and grain products
- Tea bags and coffee grounds
- Moldy bread
- Horse and cow manure, this is the worms natural diet and they thrive on it
Do not add (or avoid):
- Meats, bones, fat and anything oily or greasy – but natural oils (e.g. avocado) are fine
- 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
- Pineapple contains an enzyme that will kill your worms
- Onions and garlic – although onion skins are OK in moderation
- Spicy foods such as hot peppers
- Yard trimmings treated with pesticides
- Plastic, metals, glass or other non-biodegradable items
- Soap
- Paper that has a glossy finish or colored ink
- Poison ivy, oak or sumac or other poisonous plants
- Grass
List of Bad Foods for Composting Worms
Here’s a list of foods to avoid when feeding worms:
| Food | Reason |
| Meat |
|
| Grease and oils |
|
| Salt |
|
| Dairy |
|
| Onions and garlic |
|
| Tomatoes |
|
| Citrus |
|
| Pineapple & Papaya (Pawpaw) |
|
| Vinegar |
|
| Bread |
|
| Rice and pasta |
|
| Grass |
|
Some bad foods such as bread are OK to feed to worms in small quantities, as long as you’re adding a relative amount of good foods as well. Moreover if you’re unsure about whether you should add specific food source, then always leave it out.
What Do Worms Eat in My Bin?
Here are the top foods I add into my bin:
- Fruits with high water content like watermelon, cantaloupe and mango peel. My worms go mad on these.
- I regularly mix in coffee grounds. Never a shortage 🙂
- Banana peels for extra carbon and to create a canopy keeping the under cover and dark.
- Occasionally I add egg shells for calcium. Worms always curl up inside.
- Strawberry and cucumber are popular too.
- Cardboard (thanks Amazon) and shredded newspaper
- Small amount of grass clippings after mowing lawns – helps to raise temperature in Winter
- Apple cores (my son eats about 2 apples a day)
- Carrot tops
I have a small bucket in my kitchen to collect food scraps. And when it gets full, I curate and divide the contents between a couple of worm farms. And then I put everything else in a hot compost bin.
I like to keep things simple. I don’t cut up or freeze food scraps. If something is too big, I chuck it in the hot compost bin.
Quantity
Worms eat about half of their body weight each day. However, when starting a new bin, this rarely happens straight away as they need some time to settle in. Your worms may take a week or two to adapt to the new environment, so don’t expect them to be 100% productive.
1000 worms is approximately 1 pound or 500 grams in weight. So if you have 1000 worms, you would need to feed them half of this weight each day (i.e. 1/2 a pound or 250 grams each day). Also be aware that worm populations will increase under favorable conditions given sufficient food supply and space. In very general terms, a Red worm population can double in number approx every 60 to 90 days.
Overfeeding
Feed your worms once their last meal is nearly gone. Overfeeding worms is the single biggest cause of problems in a worm bin. If the bin contains too much food, the food scraps will begin to rot before the worms can digest them. In addition, this can lead to a toxic environment. It is better to underfeed your worms than overfeed them.
One way to prevent overfeeding worms is to add food scraps in small amounts and in one place at a time. Some people like to alternate sides when adding food scraps into the worm bin. Or they rotate adding food to different sections in the bin. For example, add food scraps to section 1, then a few days later repeat and add food scraps to section 2 and so on.
Water Content
You should also consider the water content of foods that you add. Feeding too many high moisture foods such as zucchini and watermelon can cause a worm bin to become too moist.
Carbon-to-Nitrogen Ratio
Worms like to eat foods just as it begins to decompose. The rate of decomposition of organic materials is greatly influenced by carbon and nitrogen. For worm composting, conditions are generally ideal with a carbon-to-nitrogen (C:N) ratio of between 20:1 and 35:1.
Materials high in carbon (C:N ratio greater than 30:1) are categorized as browns because they are dry. And nitrogen rich materials are categorized as greens because they are fresh and moist (C:N ratio less than 30:1).
If you add equal amounts of greens and browns into the bin, then the C:N ratio should take care of itself. So it’s a good idea to have a basic understanding of what is a green or brown when adding food into the bin.
Lots of help thanks
Thank you for the information it is very helpful.
often I read that worms eat 1/2 there weight in food daily, that being under ideal conditions.
I tend to puzzle a bit over the moisture content. Assuming an average of 80% MC of food scrape. 1/2 lb of food is 6.4 oz water and 1.6 oz organic matter.
Do you take MC into account when using the (1/2 there weight / day) equation??
It’s a rough guide. I wouldn’t try to overthink it. There’s a lot of factors at play. I have noticed worms like more watery foods like watermelon.
Very helpful, thank you!