Emily, here are a few more of their favourites: zucchini, cooked yams including peels, mangoes, old mushy cucumber (you know.....the ones you find at the bottom of your crisper drawer that's been hiding for weeks), and tea leaves. My wife brings home about 1/2 gal of used tea leaves from her tea shop every day and the worms really love 'em.

I'm always peeking in the bins to see how much they enjoy different foods. I've also noticed that not all my bins show the same level of enthusiasm for exactly the same food sources. In some bins it takes the worms a bit longer to respond, or they feed more from just below the food. While in other bins with the same food and feeding time, the worms will be all over the top of the food within 24hrs......... with the aforementioned cucumbers for example.

have fun,

Harry

Interesting! They don't mind the different spiced teas? I drink tons of tea and I have veered away from giving the lemon ginger teas or anything I feel may have any spice. I should test it out! They love black tea though! Thank you!

Spices are just plant materials...worms have no problem with them. Watch out for tea bags, though - I've found that many of them have a kind of non-decomposable fibrous mesh material in them, which winds up as linty pieces of stuff in the finished vermicompost which are a pain to pick out.

Generally anything with a lot of natural sugars is an invitation to a worm party, that's why fruit scraps are so popular, and also squash rinds and scraps (pumpkin, zukes, etc). Worms also love corn. Some people give worms corn meal to fatten them up before using them as bait; while not wanting to give usable people food to worms for composting as a general rule, expired or spoiled corn meal is definitely something they'd enjoy.

Emily, if you like corn on the cob, just put the leftover cobs into your bin. In a day or two you'll have loads of worms surrounding and underneath the cobs. If left in there long enough the worms will actually make their way into the center of the cob. You can see them if you snap them in half .........the cobs that is, not the worms. ; )

Harry

Love corn this time of year! I live in an area with lots of local sweet corn. Will definitely try this out!

Pumpkin is, by far, my worms' favorite food. We put whole Halloween pumpkins in the worm bins (scoop worms and bedding into the center). Watermelon rinds are also a favored food.

Thank you! I planted some pumpkin in the garden this year... knowing that they can be put to multiple uses!

This may be a bit geeky but most of the gourds we eat called pumpkin, squashes, zucchini, etc are al cultivars if the same species, cucurbita pepo

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucurbita_pepo

So not too surprising the worms like all of them

Also there are certain things that should not go in the bins which you may have already discovered. When I bring home bananas first thing I do is peel off the label from the skins or you will see them in the finished compost, same for shredded credit cards, tape and labels on cardboard , otherwise you will see them in the finished product.