Worm farming is necessary in order to compost waste naturally, provide soil with enriching organic matter, and supply fishermen with live bait. Taking care of these worms in a worm farm is actually a quite simple task, but there are some rules and regulations you will need to follow. Feeding worms correctly is essential to ensure that the worms grow up healthy and it will also ensure that the farm’s health is not put at stake.
There are a lot of food choices that can be offered to worms, as well as non-food items for composting. Some kinds of food that can be given to worms are vegetables, fruits, bread products, greens, tea bags, cereals, coffee grounds, coffee filters, and egg shells. Worms will pretty much eat practically everything, so it is important to know which foods are the most appropriate and why they are.
Worms find it the easiest to compost vegetables and fruits. One thing that is essential when feeding worms with vegetables and fruits is the size of the portions that you feed them. Fruits should be cut to half inch slices or pieces, since small pieces are easier for worms to eat. You can also blend food up with water so that the worms can find the food faster and also eat it faster.
Vegetables and fruits are also good choices because they are high in nutritional value. If you feed worms with a healthy diet, they can in turn provide you with a substance rich in nutrients that could be a great advantage to gardens, crops, flower beds, and even indoor flower pots. If you wish to feed worms with non-food items for composting, you can give them cotton rags, leaves, hair clippings, paper products, and soaked cardboard. A torn-up pizza box that is soaked in water is a wonderful treat for worms to eat.
If you plan on feeding worms with leaves, make sure the leaves you feed have not been contaminated by any chemicals. The same thing goes for grass clippings and other yard clippings. This is essential for the safety of the worms.
With certain care, you can even use pet droppings from cats or dogs in a worm farm. If dogs and cats have recently been dewormed, chances are that their bodies still have the substance inside of them. This deworming medicine can be released in their droppings, which could instantaneously kill worms. So if your pet has recently been dewormed, do not use any of their droppings in your worm farm.
If you are taking cat droppings straight from the litter box, it is also important to take good care since inorganic litter could be harmful to worms, as well. If you plan to compost the droppings through the worms, make sure you only use organic or natural litter to keep your worms happy.
A lot of food can be readily given to worms, but there are also some that should simply be avoided. Always take great care when dealing with chemically treated items, medications, or other harmful substances.
Meat is never an option when it comes to feedings worms. Worms tend to be voracious eaters, so they will eat anything, even meat that is offered. The thing is, meat oftentimes attracts pests, so maggots and flies will swarm all over the meat in a worm farm and the only way to get rid of them would be by getting rid of the meat itself.
Onions, garlic, and citrus fruits should also be avoided. Worms do not like the smell of these foods, so their first instinct would be to escape from the smell and from the worm farm itself. Diary products could also attract pests into the worm farm, so try to avoid those; besides, they tend to smell really bad once a few days have gone by.
Feeding worms is a fairly simple task. What is important is simply knowing which items are good and which ones are bad for your worms’ health. It is also important that you do not feed your worms too much. New worms, in particular, should only be given small amounts until they have gotten used to the worm far. Once they have settled in, you can then increase the amount of food that you offer.
Feeding worms too much can lead to bad smells and pests in the worm farm, and you wouldn’t want that. So keep your feeding to a minimum and keep giving new kinds of food only when the old food is almost out. Worm are capable of eating more than half of their own body weight daily, which is why the worm population usually doubles after only a couple of months. Feeding worms too much may cause a problem, but also ensure that you don’t feed your worms too little, as well.
To create a happy worm population, feed your worms well. Happy worms are more capable of creating natural composts as well as soil-enriching substances that will in turn keep the worm farmer happy, too.
