I'm going to be trying pumpkins soon also :). From what I've read, worms love pumpkins and lots of people are looking forward to the season.

In regards to pesticides, yeah I've read similar things. I don't know, it's hard to say as people have different systems, have different foods and have different results. For instance I know some people don't use bananas unless organic. But I've used bananas in big quantities and had no problems. Same with citrus fruits etc.

Personally I use everything except for things universally excluded or warned against, otherwise if I excluded things that someone has a worry about I find I have to exclude so much food.

I haven't had any problems with feeding pumpkins to my worms, they LOVE them!Just watch that you don't put too much in, because it will heat up.

I have fed my worms lots of JOL each year and no problems.
Will the pesticide just be on the outside? If you are concerned, maybe let them get soft and just scoop the inside for the worms. They definitely love pumpkins.

When adding pumpkin or watermellon rind I alway first add tons of bedding below and above to absorb moisture. As they desolve, one day, they just start draining.

Well, I fed the Jack-o-Lanterns to the worms. I froze the pieces first, and then fed them defrosted 1" cubes. They loved them, and I haven't noticed any dead worms. I would echo what equinoxequinox said, they definitely release a lot of liquid.

Freezing makes the pumpkin break down faster. I put fresh and frozen pumpkin in my systems. The frozen was consumed far faster. This year I put whole jack o' lantern in my 5 gallon system and it's almost gone.

How big is your JOL, Patrick?

The Jack o Lantern pumpkin was nearly as big across as the bucket, maybe a couple of inches shy of spanning the width of the bucket, so that's like 10-12" across.

Whoa..pesticides on banana peels. This is the first time I have ever heard mention of pesticides from store bought products possibly being harmful to their worms. But Tracy is right. Other than organically sold produce, most fruits and vegetables sold in grocery stores have some pesticide residue. I have seen lists posted of the foods which are highest in pesticides and for that very reason I organic garden. However, I have used banana peelings because I never saw these on any of those lists. Now I have to give that some thought.

I never use grass from chemically treated lawns in my outdoor compost bins, and I have been involved in several lengthy discussions about chemicals feed to cows and horses, and what effect they might have on composting their manures. But this is the first time I have come across a posting that suggests pesticides from grocery purchased produce might have an effect on worms or vermicomposting. I had to stop and give that one some thought.

Althought Tracy's main concern here is for the worms,I had to go one step further. I vermicompost for three reasons: (1) using the spent media in gardening projects; and (2) using some of the worms in my garden; (3) feeding worms to my fish.

Tracy's question made me stop and think what effect these pesticides may be having indirectly on the food from my garden, and the worms which I feed to my fish.

I think much would depend on the type of pesticide which were used and how long the residual pesticide would remain in the environment. But from now on you can bet I will be rinsing the banana peels prior to blending them for my indoor compost bins. I think the rule of thumb is fifteen seconds.

I take that pesticide residue stuff with a grain of salt. Granted, you wouldn't want to ingest a bunch of the stuff, but the tiny residue amount in fruits/vegetables grown for human consumption probably don't matter much. If they did, some lawyers in CA would be suing the pants off of the big agribusiness companies and I don't see that happening.
Also, I've seen studies that looked at 100% organically grown apples that had more arsenic and lead in them vs. 'regular' apples.

Some people like things that are all organic or 100% natural. That's fine. For me, I want it to be 100% SUPERnatural. ;)