The other day I put a chopped banana peel in an ice cream bucket bin that is populated with about a half pound of red worms and it was literally gone the next day. Yesterday I added two chopped peelings and there are still some left today.

What if it was a full banana peel and not chopped up? I ask because I dropped one in yesterday, and although it was black today, it wasn't like it had been feasted upon.

Banana peels take a long time to decompose, as it is very fibrous. Chop it up and you will expose more surface area. It will decompose and become available to your worms faster.
How fast it goes really depends on the condition of the peel and how many worms you have working on it.

Yes I chop the banana peeling against the strand of the fiber to help it break down much faster. That's because months ago when feeding banana peelings whole, I've noticed the fibrous strands would stay intact in the bin for along time.

"it wasn't like it had been feasted upon"

don't expect bite marks!! worms do not have teeth, they are actually 'slurping' the sloppy surface layer of any decomposing organics, specifically to consume the decomposer organisms

in order for any material to be consumed in a worm bin, there must first be active microbial decay occuring, the bacteria breakdown the nutrients, the worms consume the bacteria

Bill

squeeze....Your last line brings me back to another recent post of mine where I was lamenting that the worms seem to only care about the food that I put in the bin, as opposed to the bedding. I wonder if there is anything I can soak the bedding in to make it more conducive to attracting bacteria and therefore become more attractive to the worms. At the pace that I am going, it will take nearly a year for me to get finished vermicompost, which is odd since I have a lot of worms.