What do Worms Eat?

San Angelo area worm farmer Jerry Schiller talks about what a worm eats and what he feeds his worms.

If you are raising worms at home,  you can feed them tomatoes, coffee grounds, vegetables and if your soil is acidic, you can grind some egg shells and add those to the mix.

 You don’t want to feed meat, it will decay and attract flies.  You would use Peat Moss for the bedding and then layer with your feed and keep the vegetable and coffee grounds coming!  If you are going to use manure, then just fill your worm bed with manures.  Jerry loves to use horse manure for his worm beds.

He uses lots of manures, about a dump truck load every 6 to 8 weeks.  The worms favorite food is manure and some people call the worms manure worms.  Both horse and cow manure mixed together is often used.  The cow manure has better nutrition, the horse manure keeps the bedding looser. Using either alone, dries out faster, but blending the manures keeps the moisture better.  The best manure for worms is rabbit, because they eat concentrated pellets.  You want to steer away from Chicken manure because it’s too hot and the worms won’t like it.

The manures are the best because 70 to 80% of what the worms take in comes out in waste or the wonderful worm castings that our plants will love.  The manures have the most vitamins and minerals in it.

Watch the video and learn even more tips!