Are Pineapple and Papaya Harmful to Worms?

David
#1. July 22nd, 2009, at 5:23 PM.

Both pineapple and papaya (and pears, to a lesser degree) are excellent meat-tenderizers. I suspect that the enzymes involved are what killed and digested the worms. Cooking should denature the enzymes, though. A puree of any of the above makes a great quick marinade for beef short ribs or flank steak. I like one large or two small pears, several cloves of garlic, some fresh ginger and some soy sauce…yum.

Susan Bolman
#2. July 22nd, 2009, at 8:53 PM.

I’ve put lots of papaya in moderation over the last year and a half. What our local worm guru in Hawaii warned us of when starting is that while papaya and rind are fine, the seeds act as a birth control measure. She says they have a chemical that sterilizes the worms. I’ve never added the seeds. I’m not really interested in finding out for myself!

My worms have always been able to get away from the papaya if they wanted and I haven’t noticed them doing so.

I hear dead worms disintegrate pretty quickly. I wonder if it was the pH that did them in and then the local bin inhabitants got to enjoy the feast? I can see them all being unrecognizable after 10 days.

Jennifer S
#3. July 22nd, 2009, at 9:58 PM.

I have put whole pineapples in my bin without any negative side effects. I don’t eat papaya, but I have put both citrus and onion into my bins without problems. Onions do take forever to break down.

My worms are rebels – they live in a plastic bin outdoors in Florida. They also get water added to the system now and then to help with evaporative cooling.

Bob Packard
#4. July 22nd, 2009, at 11:08 PM.

Oh, Oh! I think I see a new experiment about to start up.

Alan Lum
#5. July 23rd, 2009, at 4:06 AM.

Aloha form Hawaii! I put both types of fruit in my large bins. I age the fruit and add them without any hesitation. The pineapple bottoms and rough surface provide a nice environment for young worms. I often find worm balls under pineapple bottoms like you often fine under watermelon. As for papaya, I have heard about the seeds being birth control, however, my bins are thriving even though some seeds have been added.

Mark in Santa Barbara
#7. July 24th, 2009, at 12:58 PM.

I’ve heard that papaya seeds are somewhat effective as a human contraceptive, but I’d think the human and worm reproductive systems are so different that I’d be surprised if papaya seeds had a similar contraceptive effect in worms. Just guessing, though.

Kevin
#8. July 25th, 2009, at 1:28 PM.

Contraceptive?Yikes. There’s something I wouldn’t count on! As for pineapple, it’s definitely an age-old kitchen fact (refugee from 20+ years in the food biz here) that if you try to cook with fresh pineapple, you best cook it well, to destroy those enzymes (almost all denature quickly in heat). e.g. any decent recipe for pineapple upside-down cake will either suggest canned and warn about how to use fresh – else you end up with a soupy pudding-like mess in your cast iron skillet. Easy to see how the proteins that make up a worms “skin” would be easily break down in this environment. Alan’s success must be attributed to the aging – hard to see how it would work otherwise – chemistry is chemistry, after all!

Sean in Plano, Texas
#9. July 27th, 2009, at 7:15 AM.

I’ve added fresh pineapple scraps to my small population(100~ red worms) and slightly larger population(200~ red worms) and they seem to really enjoy the pineapple. Somehow I think the chemistry is a little more complex. Maybe the mucus coating of the worm protects them fairly well to where the enzymes aren’t too effective against them.

Will
#10. July 28th, 2009, at 7:22 AM.

I make papaya smoothies all the time so it’s not unusual for me to stock up heavily on papaya and inevitably some of them rot before I can get to them. I’ve dumped two large whole papayas into my worm bin and the worms totally destroyed the papaya. I find it hard to believe that the worms were “digested”. Unless if that woman’s bin was just slightly larger than the pineapple itself it shouldn’t have killed off all the worms.

Worms when they die degrade really fast so my guess is something else happened (like probably overfeeding with inadequate air circulation) that did the worms in.

Andy
#12. July 30th, 2009, at 3:14 PM.

Maybe someone was jealous of your worms and then stole them while you were on vacation….have any neighbors who like to fish?

Erica
#13. July 31st, 2009, at 5:24 AM.

My worms are voracious with all fruits, but especially seem to love pineapple and melon, which we eat frequently.

I now grind up my worm food, but for years just put in the pineapple rinds and hearts without aging them. The worms would often be found the next day happily (or so I think) huddled under the rinds, and would hang out there until the rinds were finished off. As with the rest of the family, for the worms pineapple is a favorite food.

Bay
#14. October 27th, 2009, at 9:15 PM.

I recently conducted an experiment with worms. I fed one of my groups of worms tri-tip, and those worms I believe disintegrated unless they crawled out and are in my house. The other two groups did not disintegrate. One i fed lettuce, the other i fed paper. I’m just curious if worms can actually disintegrate.

Bay
#16. November 6th, 2009, at 3:33 PM.

Tri-tip is beef-steak. (Cooked).

Cecil Pearson
#17. May 5th, 2010, at 2:00 PM.

I raise my worms in plastic containers with lids (have holes drilled in tops for ventilation). Worms were doing great! Then all of a sudden there are NO worms!. Bins are kept moist (water once per week as needed) and keep food available. Have had no problems at all. I did feed them pears early this week and now there are no worms!!!
Any suggestions BEFORE I start again?

Steve
#18. July 1st, 2010, at 4:02 AM.

I live in Phoenix, AZ. I found it difficult to keep worms in plastic containers wether in the garage or outside. It is hard to control the temperature with such high outside temps plus the heat created inside the bin. I have had great success by burying the plastic containers under a shady tree that blocks afternoon sun. May get some sun exposure in the morning hours. The dirt surrounding the bin helps to keep it cool from the 100+ temps. Just the shade alone might not be enough. Same goes for the garage. I drilled holes in the top and bottom. Drainage seeps into the ground, I’m sure the tree appreciates it. Be careful watering as bin drains slower being buried. Perhaps your bin got too hot.

Juliana
#19. December 2nd, 2010, at 1:54 PM.

PINEAPPLE IS A DEFINITE NO NO. Papaya seems fine though. Yesterday I fed my worms a whole pineapple that was already pretty well decomposed.

I opened my worm bin today to find masses of worms trying to get as far away from the pineapple as they could. At first I was thrilled because I could see my entire population of worms – and there were many more than I could have hoped for. But then I began to wonder why they were crowding on the sides of my bin and realised that it must be that they were trying to get away from something.

So I called my boyfriend for an emergency worm-saving operation and I dug around in the bin and removed as much of the pineapple as I could. I then sprinkled dirt over the top (as a way to neutralise the acid? any other ideas?) and then sprinkled some water over that and then ladelled my worms back on top.

Any ideas for other ways to neutralize the pineapple acids? I’m rather worried about my worms now!

Dayna Mitchell
#20. June 26th, 2011, at 11:00 PM.

I put straps of pineapple in my compost bin. There are clusters of worms feeding off the pineapple. Should I be concern about using my compose on vegetables, and what kind of worms are these that are in clusters?