Worms eat organic matter. Anything that has been living eventually becomes worm food. That includes dead plant material, fruits, vegetables, and microbes, both dead and alive.
This study showed a considerably high level of contamination of green vegetables involving intestinal parasites (29.6%), with lettuce being the highest contaminated vegetable (45.5%), followed by watercress (41.3%), parsley (34.3%), green onion (16.5%), and leek as the least contaminated (10.7%) (Table 1).
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.
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.
While most veggies have them, cabbage and cauliflower are specially notorious of harboring them. These worms are so small that they cannot be seen with naked eyes as they are hidden inside the layers of cabbage or cauliflower.
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.
Eat more raw garlic, pumpkin seeds, pomegranates, beets, and carrots, all of which have been used traditionally to kill parasites. In one study, researchers found that a mixture of honey and papaya seeds cleared stools of parasites in 23 out of 30 subjects. Drink a lot of water to help flush out your system.
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.
Yes! You can add dry grass clippings and deciduous leaves to your worm farm, as long as you keep food scraps and dry waste balanced. Avoid adding fresh lawn clippings, evergreen or native leaves, and sticks or woody stems.
Worms don't like:
– Chillies. – Capsicums. – Any spicy foods. – Dairy products (will make your worm farm smell)
If you've added a lot of watery food, like lettuce, melon or cucumber, make sure to balance it with some paper. Temperature: Keep your bin a cool location out of direct sunlight to prevent your worms from getting too hot.
Although broccoli is one of the few plants least affected by pests, especially during fall, it is not uncommon to occasionally find worms on broccoli heads. If left unprotected, these broccoli worms can wreak havoc on your plants.
Most people love to eat Baingan Ka Bharta and Pakode. However, this is another vegetable in which tapeworms can be found. It is said that the eggplant seeds might have the eggs of tapeworms which can easily get to your brain. For this reason, always cut the eggplant and then cook it well.
Gently rub produce while holding under plain running water. There's no need to use soap or a produce wash. Use a clean vegetable brush to scrub firm produce, such as melons and cucumbers.
Red wiggler worms (Eisenia foetida) enjoy eating almost any kind of fruit or vegetable you put into the vermicompost bin, including tomatoes. While the worms eat the tomatoes, there's a chance they won't eat all the seeds, so the seeds may sprout in your compost pile.
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.
What can you not feed worms? Poison ivy, oak or sumac, or other poisonous plants.
Under normal conditions worm will make around 50 capsules a year, hatching around 200 earthworms, and these worms will become breeders within 3 - 4 months. However worms will limit their breeding to available space and food. Pretty smart creatures aren't they! There are thousands of earthworm varieties.