The exact same thing happened to me when I first got mine. The lettuce just seems to take a really long time to break down to the point where the worms can eat it, but it will eventually. Different foods break down at different rates.

Matt,

Try freezing the foodstuff before you feed the worms. It will break down the food better.

Charles

Lettuce, carrots and the like do take some extra time to break down enough for the worms to take advantage of it. Also, if your worms came from a place where manure was feedstock, your worms will take some time to adjust to the newer feedstock (ie your salad). The softer the food the quicker the worms can move into it. Is that the only thing you have added for food in a month? What is your bedding?

There are several things that come into play with vermicomposting food stock. Although the worms 'process' the decaying organic matter, their food source is really the decomposing creatures (Protozoa, bacteria, fungi). The worms won't be interested until the material begins to decay.
What we need to do as good worm herders, is create conditions that causes materials to decompose. The very biology of the worms and their castings helps, but there are things we can do .. or do better.

1) Smaller particle size. Just like a big compost pile, smaller pieces of organic material break down more quickly than larger ones - but all materials decompose eventually.
You might break or chop materials or use a food processor or blender if you have one.

2) Freezing as Charles points out can assist in particle size reduction as cells burst when freezing. his is more effective with very moist materials or mixes. Freezing fruits can have added benefits in reducing fruit fly issues.

3) Bury the material in the top couple of inches of bedding. Newly added material placed on top can just sit there for a very long time. Mixing slightly (trench or pocket) gets the materials more 'acquainted' with the decomp bacteria. Don't bury too deeply and don't feed too heavily as this might cause the bin to heat up. A little of this is okay, but you don't want your bin turning into a miniature hot compost pile or your worms will become part of the process too!!!

4) Moisture. Like the worms themselves, the decomp creatures need a moist environment. Uncovered, somewhat dry materials won't break down very quickly. Get them moist and covered and they will disappear very quickly.

5) Timing. It takes a new bin some time before it can process waste at higher rates. This has to do with the biology of the worm bin. It's a cycle of life micro-climate. You will often see recommendations that for new worm bins, food should be withheld for some period after introducing the worms. The reason is to allow the bin biology (resulting from castings) to establish so that food stock can be processed.

I think part of the equation here should be balance of time and effort relative to the objectives. If your objective is to breed a large herd of worms and/or create a large volume of organic fertilizer (castings), perhaps no amount of effort is too large. If you're just looking for a more eco friendly solution to processing your families (veggie waste) garbage, perhaps you want a process that requires minimum effort. After all, how much time and energy do you really want to spend taking out the trash!

Ditto number 5 above. Also, things seem to speed up in the summer.

After about 3 months I expect your bin will be processing things much better.

Mariann

Salad wasnt the only thing i've been feeding them, but it seems to be the only thing they wont eat. I food processed a bunch of potatoes and some other things and they ate it up really fast! The thing is i got a lot of mites! But I guess there not a bad thing unless they get out of hand. Should i probably food process the lettuce also, because it will get it really wet like the potatoes.

Hello there !
I have had my worm tower now for three years... And so far so good...I always put the food waste through the blender with some rain water then dig a little hole and dump blender waste in the hole then cover up litely..If I had lots then I will add some in the next tray layer as well.. I find when it is process through the blender it gose much faster...They say a pound of worms will eat double what you have in worms...
Never use city water as of the chemicals in the water..I always collect rain water, or melt snow....I always mist with a spray bottle onces a week....I would say I do about fiftheen minutes of my time and the rest is done by the worms.....I now have eight trays and doing very well...
I am guessing I have about an pound of worms on each layer..After checking yesterday I have thousands of new Babies in each tray...When you see little white wriggly hairs then you know its working well and producing BABIES....

Chatterbox

Hi Matt Man
I have 3 different kids of worms and have found thar redworms will not eat lettuce very willingly but my pheretima hawayanas will gobble up everything with in a few days. When I was feeding veggie scraps (mostly lettuce) from a vegetable/fruit market put through a garbage disposal, buried i/2 way down in bedding the redworms still had lettuce type food still there after several days while all food was gone in a about 3 days in my pheretima beds.
At the time I did not have the Euros so I can't tell you about their eating habits with the lettuce. Since I have soooo many beds of worms they are fed comm. starter/grower chicken feed.
MaryKay