My worms are LOVING the grapefruit rinds! I had read a post here that they worked for someone else, too. So why are they bad? Also, what is wrong with onions and garlic?
I really should have read a book first. LOL

I've wondered about the citrus thing too. I've read that oranges are fine in small amounts, but that grapefruit is okay. Since grapefruit is a citrus as well, why not oranges, and yes to grapefruits?
I just checked my grapefruit rinds I put in a few days ago and they are completely gone! So they got more today
:-)
Sherry

Bump... anyone? I use tons of fresh garlic & I'd love to put the skins in, just want to make sure it's OK!

I put in small amount of onion skins, garlic skins, some but not much citrus.

In my experience, the problem with garlic and onion skins is that they don't break down. The worms don't eat anything until it starts to decompose, so the skins just sit there. I have also noticed the worms won't eat other root vegetables very quickly, like raw carrot chunks or potato skins. Those do eventually break down and get eaten, but it takes a really long time. Carrot peelings are so small, they break down more quickly and seem to get eaten fairly quickly, but I don't put lots in my bin.

Orange peels also don't break down and my worms don't eat them, so I stopped putting them in my bin a long time ago. I don't eat grapefruit, so I have never put rinds into my bin, but maybe the worms would eat it because the rind has a lot pulp attached to it, which gets the decomposing process going. Orange peels usually don't have any pulp attached, at least the way I eat them. In any event, I don't think the oil or waxy substances in citrus peels are worms' favorite things to eat.

Basically, my worms get mostly coffee grounds and banana skins. Sometimes they get a few bits of lettuce or other vegetable trimmings, apple cores, and rarely moldy bread, plain pasta or rice. They don't need variety; they really seem perfectly fine with just the coffee and bananas.

Everything elso goes into my regular compost bin, where I think having some varitey of materials is beneficial.

I agree with karchita. I think the main reason that certain veggies are put on the No list is because they break down more slowly. I once put a lot of orange rinds in my bins (I got 3 boxes for free from a shop that sells fresh orange juice). They caused my bins to heat up by a few degrees for a few days, but the worms were fine and they ate them all in about 3 weeks. I was worried about the acidity but it didn't seem to be a problem for the worms. And my worms eat onions and garlic all the time. They prefer sweeter foods so they eat those faster but they eat whatever I give them.

Rotting onions (and their kin) give off a gas that can harm the little red wrigglers.

My guys steer clear of orange pulp, too. I've tried letting it rot before I introduce it into the bins. Nope.

By the way, the reproduction rate this winter was amazing. Is there something in the air?

How about mango skins, has anyone tried them? I suspect they'd like the pulp inside the skin but maybe not so much the actual skin. But I also worry that maybe since it's such a thick-skinned fruit, it might be sprayed a lot, like bananas.

Or maybe the mango pit? I know the pit wouldn't break down, but there's always some pulp you can't get off...

there's nothing wrong with any kind of citrus waste except the "zest" [limonene] takes awhile to break down enough for the bacteria to get past it [and remember the worms are eating the bacteria laden sloppy stuff, NOT the 'fresh' food] - chop it up well and mix it around, solid clumps will take seemingly forever to start decomposing

same goes for onions and garlic [the skins are high carbon, less useful to bacteria], nothing organic will harm worms or be unattractive to them once decomposition gets underway - mango pits, like avocado pits and skins, are such dense high carbon items they'll be recognizeable for years, might as well just bury them in the yard [tho' I chop'em up and add'em to the compost]

I compost large volumes of {{gwi:257816}}, including buckets of {{gwi:285842}} that I put thru a shredder with waste wheat grass mats - a week or 3 in a hot compost bin to get it past the heating stage, and the worms make short work of it all .... there's always lots of fat happy grandaddy worms in fringes of the hot bin as well

Bill