The worms are all happily settled in now. All 4000 of them! None of them escaped anymore and there weren’t any more on the top of the lids and only two or so in each of the sump trays. They also seem to start eating the tea bags put in for recycling – they seem to like the peppermint ones in particular – and the worm treats seem to be gone already, too.
Micah put some of his burnt and cold toast in; I am wondering if that will work. Nearly every book, leaflet, website and user seem to list different ingredients suitable for vermicomposting and there is quite some contradictory information out there about what can go into the worm bins for recycling and whatnot. Points of controversies are acidic organic waste like lemon peel; wood shavings (other animal waste & manure), bread, meat- and dairy including food leftovers.
Comments
Comment by Ronnie on 2008-10-06 23:54:15 +0100
Hi –
Thanks for the blog – Im keeping an interested eye on your results.
With reference to your points above about what can / cannot go into your wormery, we try to follow the following rules.
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Acidic foods lemons, oranges etc actually contain oils in their peels which can irritate the worms skin.
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Bread, pasta etc when it starts to compost down actually produces lots of heat which the worms do not like.
Basically from our findings, wait until your wormery is established (from around 3 months onwards) then you can start adding small amounts of the above foods. The worms should be able to process the waste with no detrimental effects, always remember to use a good mixture of different foods, and mix with a carbon product (paper – cardboard) to get a great balence in your wormery, happy worms, and fabulous compost.
Best Of Luck
Ronnie