Reader Question: Best Foods for a Worm Bin

It's been a while since I've done a good vermicompost-themed post. Luckily, I received an email from Janice, who asks:

"Hi Colleen. My worms don't seem to eat the potato peelings I put in the bin, even when there's no other food in there to eat. Are there certain foods that they avoid?"

Thanks for the excellent question, Janice! As you've noticed with your potato peels, there are certainly some foods that red wigglers are less than fond of. When I first started my worm bin, I noticed the same thing regarding potato peels (which is a shame, because we eat potatoes most days during the week!) I have noticed that my worms will eat the potato peels if they're very thin -- they seem to avoid thicker pieces of potato, and definitely avoid anything that is sprouting. So those potatoes that are sprouting already are better sent out to the compost pile than into the worm bin. They'll eat their newspaper bedding before they eat a sprouting bit of potato.

There are a few other foods red wigglers tend to avoid. They usually avoid anything that causes them irritation, especially acidic foods. Onions and all types of citrus should be added very sparingly, or just added to an outdoor compost pile instead.

Conversely, I've found that our worms tend to really enjoy certain foods, such as melon and plain pasta. For more hit and miss foods for your vermicomposting worms, check out my article on the best and worst foods for worm bins.

More Vermicomposting:

• Can I Add Bokashi to a Worm Bin?
• Fruit Flies and Worm Bins
• Wet Worm Bin
• How to Set Up a Worm Bin
• Why Are My Worms Trying to Escape?