Do you have Boy or Girl Scouts there? If so, you might find a den willing to sit/learn about the worms.

If no one's able to help you, try for some longer decomposing things like thick(er) cardboard and newspaper. It takes a while for some of those things to break down and the worms can live on slightly less nutrient rich food. A few of my bins are almost exclusively newspaper and cardboard fed and the worms seem quite happy.

Novelist, how many bins do you have? Do you keep newspaper bins just to recycle, or are they part of a plan to have room for extra kitchen scraps when they arise? I am curious about how other people manage their worm population!

I have left my can - o - worms for 10 weeks. I added mostly 'browns' as mentioned above that take a long time to break down. Twigs, cardboard, some greens grass / weed leaves also. The worms did fine. I filled one of the 3 tiers to the top and after the 10 weeks it was all finished except for a couple of the thicker sticks.

I have four plastic bin and two larger wooden bins, probably about 10-12 pounds in all. I have only been at this since last summer, but I have experienced a lot of success in that short time. I have experiemented with a variety of materials as well.

I moved some of my bins to all newspaper and cardboard because my house no longer provides enough "trash" to feed my growing population. Since my goal is to have several hundred pounds of worms in time, I need to find a way to feed them. My sons and I sell VC Tea at local Farmer's Markets and we want a large supply of them. We alos use VC tea as our exclusive form of fertilizer for our greenhouse (8-x10) and hoophouses (total sizes: 10 feet by 84 feet). In this area we grow several hundred tomato plants as well as associated vegetables for the FM.

I planted several rows of pumpkins this spring that will be used to feed my worms over the fall and winter. I continue to use a lot of newspaper and cardboard, though, in the meantime since they have to eat between now and then.

I'd put lots and lots of bedding in there - preferably shredded leaves since it takes them awhile to process a large amount of leaves, particularly if they're oak. And a fair amount of kitchen scraps too. But the leaves would get them through long term.

Deanna

Could you "loan" them to a local elementary class? Perhaps if you offered the gift of a small bin and some worms in exchange for their babysitting. Or if they are outside, could you hire someone to stop by every 2-3 weeks and add a bit of food and/or fresh bedding?

I would agree with gardenfanatic. If you load up the bin with fresh bedding they should be ok. Things like cardboard and leaves.

The risk of having someone look after them can be greater that leaving them alone. Sometimes well meaning people overwater or over feed.

Marshall