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.
You can purchase a powdered worm food from a bait supply store or make your own worm food by blending fruit and veggie scraps, coffee grounds, or eggshells. To feed the worms, sprinkle a light layer the worm food over the top of the worm box.
Avoid feeding the worms large quantities of meat, citrus, onions and dairy foods. Some processed food also contains preservatives, which discourage the worms from eating it. These foods won't harm your worms, but they will avoid them and those scraps will break down and rot in the bin.
Worms need moisture, air, food, darkness, and warm (but not hot) temperatures. Bedding, made of newspaper strips or leaves, will hold moisture and contain air spaces essential to worms.
Bananas are a great and inexpensive snack for both us and our worms. Those peels are desirable to compost worms no matter what shape they're in. They'll make short work of what otherwise would have taken up space in your trash.
The ideal temperature for worms is between 55 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Adding worms to bedding: When bedding is ready for the worms place the worms on top. They will disappear in a short time in the bedding.
So in order to keep a compost bin healthy, you need to mix and turn your compost to aerate it and allow oxygen to reach down the deep unreachable places. The aeration not only provides oxygen for the good bacteria, but it also kills off the anaerobic bacteria since they can't survive with oxygen.
Although earthworms are like other consumers in that they are unable to produce their own food, they are unlike in that they do not eat live organisms. Instead, they extract food energy from decaying organic matter (plants and animals that have died).
If there isn't enough moisture, worms will become lethargic, start to dry out, and may not eat as much. If the bin is too moist, especially at the bottom of a bin or tray, the worms may stay in the bedding or near the bottom of the bin and not eat as much.
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.
But animals with simple nervous systems, like lobsters, snails and worms, do not have the ability to process emotional information and therefore do not experience suffering, say most researchers. "There are two types of animals, invertebrates and vertebrates," said Craig W.
Eggshells as food for composting worms
Composting worms can absolutely be fed with crushed shells from eggs. You should know that compost worms will eat just about anything that's organic (all except meat, seafood, poultry, dairy, oily, or spicy stuff).
Worms require a moist, dark environment in order to survive. Experiement #3 – Which surface will worms prefer? Collect the flashlights and give each group a dry paper towel. Instruct them to place their worms so that they are half on the wet surface and half on the dry surface.
"It was like they were having a little conference" in the hotter water. The worms survived for as long as seven hours at 122 degrees F (50 degrees C), and would spend as long as 15 minutes at 131 degrees F (55 degrees C). Water of 140 degrees F (60 degrees C) killed them.
Earthworms are safe and fun to touch, as this Discovery Garden visitor proves.
Worms can't digest meat proteins or lactose, so no dairy products either, like milk or cheese. While worms do like egg shells, the egg cannot go in the bin.
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. Rinse oily dressing off left-over salad.
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.
There are certain pesticide families that are considered as harmful to earthworms i.e. neonicotinoids, strobilurins, sulfonylureas, triazoles, carbamates and organophosphates (Pelosi et al., 2014).
Worms don't sleep on a day/night schedule like mammals. Instead, their sleep-like behavior occurs at specific stages during development; the worms enter this state each time they transition from one larval stage to another.
Bedding should always be about 2 to 3 inches thick above food and worms.