However, it's important to note that worms should only be fed small amounts of sugar as consuming too much sugar can lead to imbalances in their diet and ultimately harm their health. Therefore, worms may not like sugar, but they certainly find it useful as a source of energy.
Sugar- Keep sugar to a minimum, especially processed sugars. Your worms actually feed mostly on the bacteria cultures that develop on food that rots and sugar creates a rich environment for the bacteria.
Composting worms will absolutely love eating any members of the cucurbitaceae plant family like pumpkins, squash, cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, etc. These fruits break down very quickly, are high in sugar, and lack the sinewy nature of plants like broccoli, so worms are quick to swarm them in your worm bin.
Worms hate: meat or fish, cheese, butter, greasy food, animal waste, spicy and salty foods, citrus.” The food-to-worm ratio is not precise, nor is the amount of castings they will produce. The rule of thumb is that a pound of worms will eat one to two pounds of food in a week.
Bread, rice, pasta, processed foods - you can add the odd crust or bits of cooked rice off the dinner plate, but don't add lots of starchy foods. Worms don't like them and they may go off or attract pests. Acidic foods - citrus, pineapple, garlic and onions.
Foods that Composting Worms Love
They will happily digest a wide variety of organic plant material into nutrient rich worm castings. I put old lettuce in there, rotten vegetables, potato peels, fruit, grass clipping, and leaves, just to name a few. They especially love the fruit.
Dairy products such as milk, cheese, and yogurt should never go into a worm bin. Even non-fat varieties are bad for composting worms. Therefore, dispose of meat, bones, gristle, and dairy products in the trash.
Worms need moisture in order to breathe oxygen through their skin. If a worms skin dries out, they will suffocate. Likewise, if the moisture level of worm bin bedding is too high, they will drown. And when conditions are too wet, it deprives oxygen that is needed to support the breakdown of foods.
Parasites feed off of sugary foods (Cookies, cakes, sweeteners), and foods that convert to sugar quickly (grains, pasta, wheat, rice). Eating foods high in sugar will worsen a parasitic infection, causing it to spread quicker.
Parasites and other unfriendly gut bugs (certain yeasts and bacteria) feed off sugar as an energy source, as well as starch and unhealthy fats. If sugar cravings are your main symptom, then sort out your diet first, switching to whole foods and cutting as much sugar out as possible, before worrying about a parasite.
It's also important to wash any bedding and towels to get rid of any eggs, as they can live for up to two weeks outside the body. “Worms like sugar,” says Dr Snell, “so it can also be a good idea to cut back on sugar in your child's diet, too.”
Tea Bags: Yes! The tea bags will start to break down in the worm bin, and the worms will finish off the contents. The string and paper tab might not break down as quickly. You can rip them off before saving a tea bag.
Worms love to eat coffee grounds, and that's great news for your garden. Add coffee grounds to your compost pile to help attract worms, which help speed up the process of turning food scraps into compost. You can also add coffee grounds directly to the soil, but you'll have to be careful not to overdo it.
Eggshells as food for composting worms
Composting worms can absolutely be fed with crushed shells from eggs.
The worms' job is to eat the food before it gets super-rotten and stinky. If you add too much food at a time, they cannot keep up. Too much food can also push the air out of the bin, leading to foul-smelling anaerobic decomposition.
“Basically, if immature worms sense stress of any kind they can temporarily halt their normal growth for months and then restart it when the stress passes. This temporary freeze in the growth process is the dauer state,” said Dr. Hobert.
"Worms love hair. They love lint from the dryer and they love nails." Gellert mixes these ingredients up with coffee grounds and other organic waste.
Bruised portions of bananas, or even whole ones tossed aside for being overripe, are welcome in the worm bin. Avoid putting them in whole as the fruit will likely go sour in the amount of time it takes the worms to get through the skin. To make food easier for the worms to consume it is good to chop or puree it.
Other foods worms like are crushed egg shells, avocado skin and poultry pellets. Avoid adding meat, fish or dairy products, garlic or citrus and onion peelings as these may produce offensive smells, attract pests and are not favoured by the worms.