What Do Worms Eat? Best (and Worst) Foods Revealed

[@rayjay8322]

For the small worm farmer, cut in half avocados can be a harvesting tool. Just set them on top and wait a couple of days. When you lift the avocado, you'll see an orgy of worms eating and seemingly breeding. They will be in a big ball that's easy to pick up. You can also use this trick in your plant's pot or bed to feed your worms and the beneficial bugs. I use avocados in Earthboxes(NOT using ANY of Earthbox recommendations) and small cantaloupes in beds to grow medical cannabis for my fellow able and disabled Veterans. For you organic cannabis growers, much of the bulk spent materials used for making FFJ(Fermented Fruit Juice), FPJ(Fermented Plant juice) and SST(Sprouted Seed Tea) can be fed to your worms. It's best mixed with compost or other browns.

[@katiem9644]

I justed started a worm bin several months ago, and have been experimenting with different small amounts of food to see what they like. Yesterday I went out to my field and picked a few "horse apples" and put them in the corner of the bin. I checked it this morning and omg...it was a worm orgy! Well I now figured out their favorite food! and its free!!

[@zackb7702]

New to worm farming(European Nightcrawlers). I use mushroom compost, coconut coir as the bedding and feed them chicken laying feed mash once a week and they seem to love it.

[@lukesanchez7415]

Thanks for teaching me how to care for worms, Vin Diesel!

[@Skac01]

They're not worms... they're family.

[@TomCafiero]

Great reminders for us worm-loving hacks out there Steve👍🏼

[@UrbanWormCompany]

Ha! Thanks TJ! :)

[@benkermen8360]

I had some cold insulation packing material that was labeled compostable. I began adding it to my worm row and soon realized that only about 50% was compostable. Just like the dryer lint the insulation was held together with some type of poly fiber. I spent much time picking that crap out of my worm row. Now, whenever something is labeled compostable I do a sample test first.

[@SherieRodrigues]

You speak very well my dear, thank you for your info. ❤❤❤❤

[@annelm369]

Thank you!! This explains the basics in an easy way to understand... Re: horse manure... Is dewormer harmful to our worms? I can't find a definitive yes or no

[@crapton9002]

I've never heard anyone say in isn't harmful. I would imagine how long ago the worming happened is what I would want to know. I make sure in isn't.

[@Th4thWiseman]

Yes dewormers all kill ground worms and it is best practice not to use manures from a medicated dewormed animal for atleast 2 weeks or more to stay in the safe zone for your worms themself. The manures that the animals excrete do in time breakdown and microbes clean up any deworming chemicals 👍

[@UrbanWormCompany]

Hi Annelm, I'm actually not sure those dewormers target earthworms. But since you likely want that horse manure to mellow for awhile anyways, you're probably OK.

[@rmoreland3583]

I can't answer your question about using a de-wormer but I would like to offer an opinion about horse manure. I wont use it for any reason. I ruined my last garden' actually three gardens, because the horse ate hay from a field sprayed with an herbicide; specifically "Grazer". I lost potatoes, green beans, squash, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuces, cucumber, black eyed peas, cabbage, acorn squash. broccoli, cauliflower and sweet potato. Only thing nor affected was sweet corn but even it suffered. I had the soil tested and the results and explanation of the results were that it would require 4 years for the grazer to break down to 97% and another 15 years to get rid of the rest of the herbicide. Cow, horse, goat and sheep manure are now not allowed in my new gardens. So a word to the wise!!!!

[@nelsonolivera8059]

@@rmoreland3583 Thank You for relating your experience. Would mushroom compost bring similar risk to the spraying?

[@keelapermaculturefarm]

Thanks for the video. I am a sheep farmer, I felt left out. We have been using semi Composted Sheep manure for years for our worms and it works great but a bit bulky with the straw. We also sell worms but are now trying to make separating easier so are now trying our fully Composted chicken manure which is much finer than the sheep manure.

[@UrbanWormCompany]

Didn't mean to leave you out! I would consider sheep manure to be somewhat similar to horse or alpaca manure as it has a similar (maybe somewhat higher) CN, especially with the added bedding.

[@WDWormsnGarden]

Very informative as always.

[@commonleaders]

🎉 AWESOME CONTENT!! Did you create the animations/graphics yourself? Looks awesome 👌

[@UrbanWormCompany]

I've got a killer VA!

[@bradical2723]

Adding worms to soil without organic matter, expecting them to make it fertile is like adding mammoths back to the earth and saying "make it colder"...

[@jerrymc8684]

Grew up working a full scale 200 (3'×8'×12") ben operation of "hybrid red wigglers", after several experiments with various feeds and bedding. We settled on 50/50 mix of peatmoss and aged sawdust for bedding and powdered hogshorts for feed.

[@UrbanWormCompany]

Sounds great. Hope it works well!

[@jerrymc8684]

@@UrbanWormCompany had a big problem with little white mites.. are mites common for worm farms?

[@cg579]

What are hogshorts?

[@jerrymc8684]

@@cg579 technically called "wheat shorts"... powdered wheat livestock feed.

[@cg579]

​@@jerrymc8684thank you for answering! Greetings from Germany❤

[@RobDazey]

Was wondering if all non carbon food could be liquified and mixed with bedding to quicken ingestion ease?

[@markrippetoe5969]

depends on what you mean by mixed. If you liquify green material (i.e. food scraps) and then mix it throughout the bedding, it will turn your worm bin into a compost bin and it will begin to heat up drastically. Your worms will either die from the heat or try to crawl out. You can liquify green material and mix it in a partial area of your worm bin so that the worms can crawl to the non-mixed areas of the bedding if things get too hot tho. I usually dig a trench width-ways directly in the center and deposit green material there so the worms have the other 2/3 of the bin they can run to in case it gets hot.

[@Equinella2]

There doesn't seem to be a clickable link for the 'rooky mistske' guide

[@Psychodermia]

What about fireplace ash? Would that harm or benefit worms? 👽✌️

[@dougsteere6814]

I have mushroom compost can I add that to my worm bedding and I blended old bananas leftover food scraps I put them in plastic containers in refrigerator can I use that and teabags will that work for food please

[@jhutto3814]

I would think alpacas would be in the same category with goats. I keep my milk goats in the barn at night and bed on wheat straw. Can I safely use the goat manure and urine when I clean the stalls every week or 10 days or should I dig to the bottom of that compost pile for the old stuff to bed my worms on? I can add some other things to it, but I feel like that would be a good carbon for them due to the manure. Thanks, Great show.

[@Scc-gn6kk]

I'm starting my first 6' by 2.5' CFT. Would shredded corn stalks and shredded leaves work for bedding?

[@angryidahobusdriver]

Yes! Definitely need to use some more organic matters too like vegetable greens etc.

[@motleydigger]

I grow cotton just for cotton compost can i put some of the cotton in a worm bin for food?

[@UrbanWormCompany]

I've never heard of doing this but hey....give it a shot!

[@motleydigger]

@@UrbanWormCompany so you don't know if the cotton would hurt them? I know you could feed them cotton burr. what about molasses?

[@Vermicompost]

Awesome video Steve!! Great explanations for new & old worm farmers alike!! Your presentation is fantastic...where were you on training days when Stand/Eval and Training fights put me to sleep with their briefs!!!🪱🪱🪱

[@UrbanWormCompany]

Haha! Thanks VLD! "Make the briefs faster and funnier" as one of my instructors used to say.

[@Vermicompost]

@@UrbanWormCompany Yes! One of the favorite chants at boring briefers😂All in good fun!

[@Vedrajrm]

What about used tea leaves?

[@zina6581]

Thank you!

[@UrbanWormCompany]

You're welcome!

[@beastyelmoboy1]

could you use used paper towels as a carbon source?

[@UrbanWormCompany]

Sure.....some folks may have an issue with the bleaches in them, but I think you'd be fine to use paper towels.

[@marjoriejohnson6535]

Wondering about adding alfalfa meal to worm beds as a food?????

[@scottstevens7253]

Sprout/ grow the alfalfa grass and then feed it to them.. Idk about feeding them straight seeds

[@marjoriejohnson6535]

@Scott Stevens alfalfa meal should be alfalfa " hay" ...cut in prime growth and dried...very green. My dad used to include alfalfa in his hay field seeds...along with treefoil, clover , etc.

[@theonkgahle874]

Cow dunk and chicken manure are my basic favorite I'll write you an email about them

[@LarryWileyWormFarm-ey8lp]

Steve i think i heard you once say how many cacons 1 worms lay in a year what was that number.

[@UrbanWormCompany]

I'm not sure I ever said a number there, but two worms ought to be able to produce a cocoon per week in optimal conditions

[@SonnyVu-d8n]

Soy meal(okara) I work at tofu place they feed cow with that

[@tarachambers7704]

Thanks Steve! Ironically, I just harvested some worm poop from your bag today. To my surprise, I had lots of worms at the bottom that came out even though it was all brown stuff. Any ideas? My bag was super full. Could it be that?

[@UrbanWormCompany]

Hi Tara! This is likely a moisture issue. If the bottom of the bag is wet, there will always be worms down there. This is very common on the first harvest or two.

[@tarachambers7704]

@@UrbanWormCompany Ahh, thanks. Yes, it was more moist than the top.

[@tomjonker-eo8hl]

i'm considering getting a biogas digester tank, does anyone know if warms can eat bio- fertilizer? it'd come out as a slurry/liquid from the tank

[@UrbanWormCompany]

Hey Tom! That's so cool! That digestate could make some decent worm habitat but I think it needs to be pre-composted first for about 4-5 weeks.

[@-ChrisD]

"Worm weirdos" he says... Heh heh yeah... 😏😎👍🏻

[@carlherlitz8132]

You did mention cannabis, but how does it affect the worm?? Out of curiosity

[@rayjay8322]

Worms LOVE cannabis leaves!

[@jzwillows]

Avocados are a favorite.

[@benjaminschupp3448]

Why do you stay away from potatoes?

[@riverdreamwalker3693]

I have no bad oders so must be doing something right coco coir and paper is food for the worms so more browns than greens

[@UrbanWormCompany]

Great! Sounds like you're off to a good start

[@אושראברהם-ע7מ]

היי אנחנו כמה חברים מישראל עם גינות בבית אנחנו בנוסף למדים ממך איך להטיב את האדמה בשביל הירקות שאנחנו מגדלים. ולא כולם מבינים אנגלית נשמח אם תוכל להוסיף תרגום בעברית שנוכל להבין אותך טוב יותר. תודה רבה הגננים מישראל 😊

[@robertposenal6981]

He said worm connoisseur😂 it’s a survival food like wild mushrooms and roots taught in Boy Scouts 😂

[@davidwilliams573]

My worms love equal amount of rolled oats and eggs shells put through a blender, and sprinkled on top with a little blood and bone, it's like a drug to them they go wild.

[@UrbanWormCompany]

That's great! Thanks for chiming in

[@zakzeus.shuufHunaak]

Mmm❤

[@Price-Williams]

All serious in door vegtable growers, need worms, in plastic Kiddie Waddin Pools, add, styrofoam insulation, under the bottom, cold floors.

[@michaelskidmore2006]

wow

[@glennlewman4186]

Does anyone feed rabbit droppings to their worms?

[@UrbanWormCompany]

Rabbit poop is an excellent food….a “cold” manure

[@shitina.bucket9699]

What about duck💩?

[@UrbanWormCompany]

Not sure about that one!

[@sheezy2526]

DAmn, I thought caffeine might be toxic to them.

[@UrbanWormCompany]

Nope!

[@BegurKailash]

I am not a non veg animal. I am a pure vegan.😀😂🤣

[@moai565]

good luck surviving

[@harrisonbergeron9764]

According to every Cop Movie I have ever seen they eat the Protagonist.

[@clivesconundrumgarden]

😂

[@riverdreamwalker3693]

That's written in the script not to see worms but you see magots

[@iggie1439]

Did you say "They eat anything that was once alive but not dead" ??????

[@UrbanWormCompany]

"now" dead, Iggie! :)