I would never put anything with salt in it in the bin.

My worms' all time favorite was horse manure. Fresh or aged, they didn't care. Yup, I fed my worms horse manure in indoor bins.

One year, when I bought my bushel of roma tomatoes, I peeled them all, and gave some to the worms. I put just a small amount (as we should all do, when introducing new food). They Loved it, so I fed it all to them. I wasn't sure about the acidity of the tomatoes, but they didn't care.

Mine love aged compost, lemons, oranges, and anything cooked and pureed. It's ok to add food that has salt in it as long as it's just a little at a time. Same goes for citrus.

#1 pumpkin. Lay an over ripe slab upside down in the bin, and there soon will be quite the worm-ball underneath. Any soft watery foods, such as melon or squash seems to attract the squirm.
#2) horse manure. My worms get lots and they love it!

An honorable mention goes to aerated worm poo tea "strainings", I use molasses in the tea, and wow do the worms get in it quickly.

Horse manure is great, but pumpkin,,,,,, they just show up ready to party!

Thanks for the reassurance, Mooshy! I was beginning to worry about the little guys and my soup, but I really think they will be just fine since they were happily gobbling up the last stuff.

Sbryce, I wish I had horse poop to feed them! That stuff sounds like filet mingon (sp?) for the wormies!

I have been hesitant to feed them tomatoes and citrus, but I will give them a try in small doses (after they finish my soup, of course!).

Worms love both tomatoes and citrus. The tomatoes will need to have the skins broken. It is the soft insides they like. Sometimes the skins don't break down at all. The same is true for bell peppers. Citrus will need to decompose for a while before the worms will eat it. It has an oil in it that is toxic to the worms, but mold will break down that oil, and the worms will have a feast.

In an earlier post on her someone had mentioned letting citrus go moldy before adding it to my worm bin. I'm not sure what the best way to do that is, but I left some orange peel rotting in a cardboard box in the yard for a week. My husband began complaining about the flies, so I threw the moldy mess in the bin. I think the only thing I accomplished was adding fruit flies and other critters to the bin. Oh, and the fruit had turned really dry as well. Is there a better way to accomplish the same thing without all my unpleasant side effects?

Mine love grapefruit. Yesterday I fed some slurry in one pat of the buckets, and the grapefruit that was cut in small pieces in a corner. When it breaks down enough, they'll be all over it. They love grapefruit.

When I had more bins than I do now, I would pick up pumpkins that were set out on garbage day after Halloween. They love pumpkin

For something exotic

SCOBY: an acronym for Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast

"One year, when I bought my bushel of roma tomatoes, I peeled them all, and gave some to the worms. I put just a small amount (as we should all do, when introducing new food). They Loved it, so I fed it all to them. I wasn't sure about the acidity of the tomatoes, but they didn't care."

"SCOBY"

Considering my limited experience, all I can add is that I have used the above two items: Roma tomatoes and SCOBY, and those are the the only items I have actually seen my worms "go for". The tomato consumption was impressive: half a Roma gone in approximately 72 hours. Per sbryce's comment regarding the skin, the only thing left of mine was the intact half of the tomato skin.

Paul

I have mentioned this before, but as for the best way to encourage citrus to break down...just put it in the bin. IMNSHO opinion, it is the best way to get anything to break down. Also some form of pre-bruising also helps, whether it is grinding, crushing, freezing, or something else.

Apple/apple-peel is one item that takes a long time to breakdown and becomes worm-ready. Once it's rotten and nice and mushy, worms will start munching.

That is good to know about the citrus. I will try putting it in the corner and (trying to) forget about it.

I just checked my bins and they're all over the food slurry.

The corners are a mushy-goodness of broken down grapefruit and they're quite enjoying that as well. Mmmmm, smells nice and citrusy when I lift the lid.

A nice smelling worm bin. That is something we have not worked towards yet here.

"Mmmmm, smells nice and citrusy when I lift the lid." Somewhere there are people working to get us to part with our hard earned money by purchasing something to get this smell. Boy would they be surprised to see where you found it.

Out, damned Febreze! out, I say!

This is the first time I've put cut-up grapefruit in the bins without freezing first.

They are blue with mold. I've never had it go moldy before; probably because they broke down quicker because they were frozen. Hopefully I'll see the squirm attack them with vigor.

I've got some tp rolls set aside stuff with my minced food, to slow down any moisture. Sausage rolls!! :-)

This post was edited by jasdip on Tue, May 6, 14 at 20:06

A few months ago, I put a whole avacado in the bin. The other week I was poking around in there and broke open the avacado skin. Full of worms and worm do-do. It was pretty cool, little green fertilizer grenade.
Wonderful. I just said fertilzer grenade online.
Dear ATF, it's a figure of speech. Not an actual explosive device.

Worms love avocados, but the skins and pits don't decompose unless they are ground up.

The fertilizer grenade sounds awesome!

Also, my squirm is more active than I've ever seen them (in my month of having them) as they are chowing down on my pumpkin soup. It was a hit.

Also, I saw bags of horse manure on the side of the road for $2.50. I was so tempted to buy my guys a little treat, but I resisted. After all, we should be converting the waste we already have, not acquiring more, right?? :)