Help! What's your wormery worms favourite food?

[Nickerly]

I just found a dead, mangled worm at the top of my wormery

Not sure if he was trying to feed and got caught in the straw on there (which keeps out the flies), was trying to make an escape or was sick.

Was just wondering, what do your worms particuarly like to eat? I want to try and cheer the rest up a bit.

[lez]

I tend to use some horse manure and mix it with veggie peelings. I think if it is left to partially break down in a compost bin or bucket then feed it to them. Do not put to much citrus or all sorts of cooked food as the worms are herbivors and do not like the acid in citrus fruit or to many onions. That is one of the reasons I like to add partially rotted stuff. As for your mangled worm it could be that the worm got caught in the straw especially if the straw is dry and died as they tend to go all liquidy when dead. it should not be to much of a worry as if you had problems in there you would have loads up on the top indicating something is wrong or they are exploring their new home. Leave the lid off for an hour aqnd they soon go back down as they do not like light. If adding cooked veg and Only cooked veg (they will not go for meat etc) make sure the veg is clean ie no dairy products in your mash like marge/butter or cheese etc as apparently they don't like that either. Hopefully you have a tap at the bottom as to much liquid cause them to die so keep it moist but not wet. It sounds like a lot of bother but when going properly is dead easy and you do all this without giving it a thought. I keep a wormery and love the compost made. I mix it with shop bought stuff and my tommies love it and the liquid. I am thinking of splashing out on a wiggly wigglers one as my home made job is not easy to use. Still get good results though. hope this helps and good luck.

[tulip]

I just found a dead, mangled worm at the top of my wormery

Not sure if he was trying to feed and got caught in the straw on there (which keeps out the flies), was trying to make an escape or was sick.

Was just wondering, what do your worms particuarly like to eat? I want to try and cheer the rest up a bit.

hi Nickerly - mine are partial to half an avocado - they scoff it in no time and seems to love the skin shell to chill out in and live in afterwards. re:the straw - do you use that instead of a lid? or just under the lid? i've not heard of using straw to keep out the flies - thanks for that idea.

tulip

[seasprout]

Ive been told Banana skins are a fav, but i dont like bananas, so mine dont get any.

Basically anything not in the Onion Family that is chopped up small, or citrus peelings.

Mine had some Worm treats yesterday and Anti Acid pellets.

[Nickerly]

I tend to use some horse manure and mix it with veggie peelings. I think if it is left to partially break down in a compost bin or bucket then feed it to them. Do not put to much citrus or all sorts of cooked food as the worms are herbivors and do not like the acid in citrus fruit or to many onions. That is one of the reasons I like to add partially rotted stuff. As for your mangled worm it could be that the worm got caught in the straw especially if the straw is dry and died as they tend to go all liquidy when dead. it should not be to much of a worry as if you had problems in there you would have loads up on the top indicating something is wrong or they are exploring their new home. Leave the lid off for an hour aqnd they soon go back down as they do not like light. If adding cooked veg and Only cooked veg (they will not go for meat etc) make sure the veg is clean ie no dairy products in your mash like marge/butter or cheese etc as apparently they don't like that either. Hopefully you have a tap at the bottom as to much liquid cause them to die so keep it moist but not wet. It sounds like a lot of bother but when going properly is dead easy and you do all this without giving it a thought. I keep a wormery and love the compost made. I mix it with shop bought stuff and my tommies love it and the liquid. I am thinking of splashing out on a wiggly wigglers one as my home made job is not easy to use. Still get good results though. hope this helps and good luck.

Thanks for the advice Lez - I think you are right and it was just a rouge dead worm who got trapped in the straw.

My wormery is home made too and does have a tap in the bottom. It's only been up for about 2 months so it might be a bit early for the worm juice yet? There's not as many good wormery websites out there as I thought so really appreciate all the first hand advice.

[Nickerly]

hi Nickerly - mine are partial to half an avocado - they scoff it in no time and seems to love the skin shell to chill out in and live in afterwards. re:the straw - do you use that instead of a lid? or just under the lid? i've not heard of using straw to keep out the flies - thanks for that idea.

tulip

Oohhh, avocado. Gives me an excuse to get some nice fresh, ripe ones to have in salad.

I keep the straw just under the lid because mine is homemade and has vent holes large enough for flies to sneak in.

It's this type of straw - unbleached/dyed but the sort you get in gift baskets Luxury Gift Baskets from Perfect Pillow Ltd.

The flies get stuck in it and can't reach the food.

Have swapped it for shredded paper and soil not though because it's a bit of a hassle to keep taking off and on to feed them.

[Nickerly]

Ive been told Banana skins are a fav, but i dont like bananas, so mine dont get any.

Basically anything not in the Onion Family that is chopped up small, or citrus peelings.

Mine had some Worm treats yesterday and Anti Acid pellets.

Apparently that's how you spot aliens - they are the only 'humans' who don't like bananas

[Alison]

Mine eat most things (even onions and citrus so long as it's not in too large a quantity) but really really love cooked mashed potato and tea bags. However, it depends on what type of tea bags you eat, mine seem fine but I know that some of them contain a bit of plastic in the bag bit which obviously won't break down.

[selfraising]

Mine like chocolate cake and biscuits!

[NOG]

I think I have mucked up my wormary. All the stuff has gone black and sludgey and a bit smelly. I dont think there are many worms.
The bottom tray is still the core bedding. do you think I should bin all the stuff and start again.

[Alison]

Try adding a lot (and I mean a lot!) of torn up newspaper to try it all out and what ever you do don't feed them for a good while and you might get it back but I wouldn't guarantee it.

[Nickerly]

Add some shredded newspaper or cardboard and mix it in to soak up all the water and aereate (sp?) the compost.

Wait a few weeks then maybe buy some more worms.

When this happens it either means you have over fed the worms or not added enough roughage (card/paper/dry leaves) to soak up the water. Might be an idea to move it to a more sheltered spot too.

I can give you the email of the guy I got my worms from if you like?

[Nickerly]

Try adding a lot (and I mean a lot!) of torn up newspaper to try it all out and what ever you do don't feed them for a good while and you might get it back but I wouldn't guarantee it.

Ah! Beat me to it

[NOG]

Thanks for all the answers.
I think I added too much stuff too soon. When I tried to empty the bottom container out there were 100 worms so I added them to the next tray, next day there were 100 worms and i moved them up. it was only after a few days I reliased that I was moving the same worms.
Should I just add the paper, or remove some of the "rotten" food?

[Nickerly]

Take out the food if you want but mixing in the paper might be enough to dry it out. Depends how much there is and how big your wormery is really.