WHAT DO WORMS EAT? WHAT I FEED MY RED WIGGLER COMPOSTING WORMS (EISENIA FETIDA)

Worm farming is a wonderful, easy(ish) & extremely beneficial opportunity to reduce household waste. I stumbled upon the vocation of worm farming by accident and when I first started vermicomposting I had done no research — at all. I knew I wanted to reduce our family’s household waste by starting a worm bin, but I didn’t know how much worm castings could improve garden soil or how to care for worms. I honestly didn’t even think about having a garden.

My primary goal, was to stop sending our organic waste to landfills, so I wanted to start a compost bin. I bought my daughter a book called ‘What a Waste’ and my mind was blown when we learned that there is miles and miles of trash in outer space, called ‘space junk’, that landfills create methane gas and plastics will remain on the planet, for forever. I mean just look at how much trash the big truck that comes once a week picks up. It’s a lot. When I was faced with these facts, I was forced to look in the mirror and encouraged to make changes. So, I started saving our food scraps and carbon materials, only I had no idea what to do with them after I started saving them. Lo and behold — another mom at the library mentioned that her dad used red wiggler worms, for composting. I immediately sent my husband to our local Tractor Supply to pick some up.

We threw them in a big bin that held compostable materials and waited.

Little did I know I was on my way to becoming a worm farmer and that we could actually turn organic waste into an extremely beneficial soil amendment that aerates soil, in turn — helping with water retention, helps plant seeds germinate and fight disease and provides micronutrients and microorganisms to the soil allowing life to flourish. Ignorance is bliss because I had no idea that cold and hot climates weren’t ideal for worms and I didn’t know I could be ‘overfeeding’ the worms, but as I started to aerate the piles of food and carbon waste, I saw an increase in my red wiggler worm population. We started with a small styrofoam cup of worms and now have 6 worm bins, so although I didn’t know all of the best practices in worm husbandry in the beginning, I have learned better practices of worm farming through trial, error and observation.

Because of my worm farming experience, I have developed a better relationship with insects and waste. I have evolved into a master researcher and I have learned that sometimes, the best advice to give, is no advice at all — it’s experimentation. So as I write these blogs, know that I don’t want to offer you any shoulds, but I do hope that my story encourages yours and offers you a bit of perspective. As I join vermiculture Facebook groups, I realize that everyone is looking for the right way to raise earthworms and I think the consensus is that these are wild animals and there is no foolproof way of raising red wiggler earthworms. An example would be that most people would say you can’t raise your worms outside, because red wigglers do not tolerate extreme temperatures. The truth, I live in a small bungalow, with my large(ish) family, and we have no choice, but to raise our worms outside. We are in a desert climate and it can get very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter, which means we pay closer attention to the needs of our worms. We keep a heavy amount of carbon on top of our worm bins, as an effort to insulate the bin. In the summer, we may be misting the bins more, to avoid a dry bin. I have gone from 1 bin to 6 bins, because of the amount of waste we accumulate and my bins are full of worms. It’s been a journey and a wonderful learning experience and if you’d like — you can read more about the benefits I’ve experienced from worm farming, here.

Vermicomposting is the process of turning organic waste into worm castings, also known as worm poop and sometimes referred to as black gold. It’s considered black gold because of its nutrient contents, ability to help plants fight off disease, aid in seed germination and as well as its ability to So when I think about my passion, gardening, I think about how much worms have played a role in my abilities to garden. We moved into a bungalow that had no trees or weeds. Okay, I take that back, we have a crabapple tree (we adore!) in our front yard. When we first moved here, we didn’t know how to identify not even a crabapple tree. Our worm journey is much like our gardening journey — we now know and love the growth and prosperity of living things. Worm farming has allowed us to nurture our soil, in turn bring nature into our backyard bungalow. We have a maple tree that we got to see grow from its first little leaves that is now taller than our house, we had rocky dirt that now resembles soil, we see lots of critters crawling around — both beneficial and pest. For the first time in my life, last summer, I got to see how sunflower seeds come from a sunflower. Growing a garden, with my kids, has allowed me to see how ‘divorced’ I was from nature and yet how necessary it is for our health and well-being. For example, we can teach our children where food comes from. An age old appendage that we’ve handed over the responsibility for, is sourcing our own food. As I read about the benefits of nature, I realize a lot of why nature is so therapeutic is because it has to do with our survival. For example, in the Book ‘Forest Bathing’ by Quin Li, the author says that humans desire the hues of greens and blues because it means there is food and water close by, so we feel peace when we see these colors. Rather than the grays of cityscapes, that actually cause us to feel stress. So gardening offers a bit of relief from being in our survival state and moves us into a rest and recover state, which is indicative of being in nature.

As I feed my family organic materials and feed the worms our organic waste, they in turn create organic matter, which is worm castings. The worm castings then nurture the soil, by adding nutrients to it and we grow edible flowers and vegetables in this soil and then eat the organic materials, providing our worms with organic waste and then, once again, feeding the soil with their worm castings. It’s the organic cycle of a worm farm, which is vermiculture and gardening and environmentalism and it’s been really fun to have a front row seat to this.

So there are a few things I don’t feed my worms and I’ll have to write a separate blog post on that. Here is a list of what I do feed my composting worms. When I ask myself why or why not when it comes to feeding my worms specific food, I ask myself — how did it breakdown previously? We’ve been vermicomposting, with red wiggler worms, for three years — this means we’ve seen a lot of food pass through each of our bins. We had more waste than one bin could sustain, so we started another and then another. We learned that the bin wasn’t sustaining out waste because it was full of both food and castings and I was apprehensive to go in to get the castings because there was always decomposing food that I didn’t want to bother with. Also, the smell of the decomposition was unpleasant. In the summer, the bin would be full of gnats. I still have gnats and other critters in my bin and I’m learning that this is a. The effect of composting outdoors and b. these critters, too, are mostly decomposers. I am no longer afraid of critters, but have come to understand that overfeeding can lead to bigger issues and heavier bins are just that — too heavy to maintain. So having more bins have given my worm populations opportunities to increase and thrive. It has also given us the opportunity to recycle 100% of our organic waste that is suitable for a red wiggler environment. An example of an unsuitable food would be meats, peppers, breads and citrus. We keep those out of the bin because they can end up smelly or cause the worms harms (. We are in s small backyard bungalow and try to keep our bins smelling like a forest habitat, rather than a bin of decomposing trash. The worms do a really good job of keeping up with the amount of food we give them and when we open the bins, the smell is indicative of their abilities.

All of the foods I’m mentioning low reappear into black gold and after 3 years of worm farming and learning more about the anatomy of red wiggler worms, I’ve become extremely confident in the worm’s abilities to decompose food.

#1 Egg Shells.

The earthworms that we use for composting are called red wigglers. The reason that these worms are good for composting is because they are epigeic, which means they are surface dwellers . They decompose bits of microorganisms and food and have no teeth, so they reach out with their throat to grab the particles, the food then goes down the esophagus, into and crop and onto the gizzard where it it ground apart. Egg shells help the worms grind their food apart, so they’re actually a beneficial component in a worm bin, not only because they are made of calcium, but because they are providing the worms with a digestive tool necessary for their survival. The proper way to put these into a worm bin, would be to grind them into a powder, however, because I don’t grind or blend any of the food I put into my worm bins, nor do I rinse m y egg shells — with the understanding that it just takes more time to break down. I’m okay with this, because I don’t harvest my castings frequently and I have 6 bins. I do smash, with a fork before I throw them into the compost, so that they blend in with the other food. Everything I put into my bin eventually breaks down and turns into worm castings, so whether you choose to blend or grind your food — is a personal preference. Because I am a busy mom, I find that the less work I have to do to when processing our waste, the more successful I am at keeping my bins fed and up-kept.

#2 Fruit Leftovers.

This is including, but not limited to — apple cores, melon rinds, banana peels, avocado pits and skins and berries that have gone bad.

I st zopped giving my worms strawberries, pineapple and oranges because of the odors that arose in the bins and the amount of time it took them to break these things down. In small amounts, I don’t think these would harm my bins and they do creep into the waste that ends up in the bins, but if we’ve accidentally bought a bag of oranges that we didn’t notice were moldy, I wouldn’t throw the entire bag into the worm bin. There is a science to citrus and its decomposition PH levels.

When I think about the quality of castings I want to have, for the garden, I think ‘organic’, so most (if not all) of the waste we give to the worms is organic.

#3 Vegetable Scraps.

This is including, but not limited to — parts of tomatoes and bell peppers we don’t use, the leaves of celery, peels of carrots and cucumber, as well as their tops.

Have you hear the phrase, “You are what you eat.”? I guess this goes without saying that your garden is also what you eat, if you are a vermicomposter. I’ve heard this on different podcasts and YouTube channels, that worm castings aren’t all alike and it depends on what you feed the worms. So I’ve created a graphic that shows the cycle of a worm farm to show that you are basically recycling nutrients by feeding your worms what you grow. We don’t grow enough to feed our growing family, but hope to be able to one day. For now, we feed our worms what we eat and this involves our daily vegetable scraps. I do not put anything with salad dressings or oils because it may attract pests to our bins, but I am confident my worms could handle the decomposition of those things too.

#3 Cooked Rice, Beans & Pasta Leftovers.

I wouldn’t give my worms uncooked rice and beans because of the consistency and the fact that beans are seeds. The seeds would eventually germinate, if the conditions in the bin were right and then decompose and the worms could enjoy them, but this may take a while. My family eats a lot of rice and beans, so as we scrape our plates, the remains would either go to our chickens or into the worm bin.

#4 Herbs.

Whether it’s because the storebought herbs have gone bad too quickly or we decide the stems aren’t suitable for what we’re making, herbs are definitly suitable for the worm bin.

#5 Tea Bags.

If we buy tea bags from companies that care about our health and the planet, then most likely the tea bags are compostable.

#6 Coffee Grounds and Compostable Filters.

I add everything in moderation. We have this coffee pot and it’s supposed to remove the acidity from the coffee. Coffee grounds are high in nitrogen and too much nitrogen can cause issues for the worm bin, so I always make sure to add a lot of carbon to my bins. I don’t measure my nitrogen to carbon ratios, but there is a calculator on the Urban Worm Company’s website that you can use if you’re unsure if your bins are too acidic, or if you’re unsure if you’re adding enough carbon. You can find the calculator, here.

#7 Garden Leftovers.

Last year, I air dried a lot of our flowers and herbs to use for teas and cooking, but did have some leftover garden plants that was either used as mulch, or went to the chickens. There really wasn’t a ton to put in the worm bin, but because

#8 Carbon.

I never knew the difference between carbon and nitrogen until someone referred to them as greens and browns. So nitrogen would be the greens and carbon would be the browns. The nitrogen would be most the items I’ve mentioned above. All organic materials are either greens and browns. When I think of browns, I think of things that are actually brown — brown paper bags, wood chips, fallen leaves, cardboard etc. and if you notice, all of these items were once apart of a tree.

You can also use newspaper and paper when measuring your brown to green ratio. All of the brown materials I mentioned will keep your bin in a stable pH state, when the right amount is added. Some organic materials have higher levels of nitrogen than others, take grass for instance — it’s high in nitrogen. There are online resources to determine how much carbon:nitrogen you would want to add to keep your bins stable and your worms happy. I like to use a 2:1 ration, by weight and even go heavy on the carbon content in my bin because; nitrogen needs this for a healthy breakdown, I use it to protect the nitrogen from pesky pest infestation (like gnats and flies) and I use it to insulate my bins in the winter and keep them from excess heat in the summer. I use a heavy layer of carbon on the top of my bins and when the bins seem dry, I spray the carbon content, so it stays moist and leaks whatever excess water into the rest of the bin.

When starting a new worm bin, I use carbon materials as their bedding to get them off to a good start. I do use fallen leaves, but because those are only available to me at certain times of the year, I prefer Trader Joe’s brown paper bags. Any paper bags will do, but these breakdown really well and have a compostable label at the bottom of the bag. Whatever you do use, consider whether or not it’s been sprayed with pesticides because this could impact the health of your worms.

#9 Sourdough Starter Discard.

This is one I had to experiment with, because it has microorganisms, I thought it would be the perfect addition to my bins and it has been. I add everything in moderation and am sure to level out the pH with carbon and lo and behold, the sourdough discard recycles into work castings, too.

I try to steer clear of feeding my works nothing that’ll take a while to breakdown, because this means it’ll be sitting in the bin and could attract animals.

Here are some things I haven’t had the best of luck with, in our bins — citrus, as they change the pH of the bin and seem to leave an unattractive odor, potatoes, I also won’t put corn cobs, but the husks seem to be okay. Last, I won’t do meat or dairy and breads.

If you have any suggestions for feedstocks, please leave them in the comments below!

Happy feeding!

Waynna