Ball of Red Worms inside an avocado skin
Continuing with the ‘Red Worms Love…’ theme today, I thought it would be fun to post this picture I took fairly recently and just came across this morning in one of my worm picture folders. This was in the ‘older’ bin mentioned in the last post. When I opened up the lid I was quite surprised to see this writing mass of worms balled up in an avocado skin – I’m pretty sure there were actually quite a few more worms when I first opened the bin, but some left the scene when I went to get the camera (that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!).
I wouldn’t have expected avocado to be a great worm food. It has a high oil content and would likely go anaerobic very easily. We eat avocado quite regularly (it IS a ‘miracle food’ after all – haha) and I always add the left-overs to my kitchen scraps collection, but I’m definitely going to start paying more attention to how the worms react to it.
I’d be interested to know if anyone else has tried adding it to your bins?
By the way, if you are looking for another food that worms seem to LOVE – try cantaloupe!
Close-up of the avocado worm ball – you can see some mites feasting on some avocado up to the left
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I have just started up a worm bin (I am waiting on a delivery of a pound of worms). I started the bin with some leftover fishing worms (about 15 redworms) I had a couple weeks back. Well I just got home from work today and checked out how the worms were doing and I had trouble locating them until I noticed they were all balled up in an avocado husk. I came inside to check out this site (which is very helpful to a new vermicomposter) and see you had done an article on what I just saw. What a coincidence.
Hi P,
I moved your comment over to this post for you. No problemo.
Interesting that your worms balled up in the avocado peel too!
How did you set up your worm bin?
Just got my worms today. I started the bin couple weeks ago. Made it with a Rubbermaid tub with holes punched in the sides and bottom. Bedding is a mixture of shredded newspaper, leaves, and cardboard.
I haven’t tried the avocado (don’t eat them at our house), but I do give them a lot of grapefruit peels as well as potatoes peels. I haven’t kept good track of how the worms react to the either of them, but they do both get processed. I’ve been concerned a little about too much citrus making the bin acidic. Don’t know about the potatoes peels, I’ve been told not to feed them to chickens, but the worms don’t seem to mind them.
Allen
Thanks for sharing those tidbits, Allen.
I haven’t fed my worms too much of either, but would imagine the worms would like potato peels better than large quantities of the potatoes themselves (starchy materials are perfectly fine so long as you spread them around and don’t go overboard with them). Citrus fruit would definitely add acidity, but I think the peels contain oils that likely irritate worms (sensitive) skin. That being said, I’ve added plenty of orange peels to my bins over the years and have never had any negative repercussions.
B
LOVE my worm bin!
I was on vacation for three month, expected the worms would die without attention and when I returned . . . They were alive and happy
Although the worms do not eat the skins of avocados or egg shells they do congregate inside them
Hi! I just came across this and my red wigglers, too, adore avocados! I’m currently conducting an experiment with the pits. I’m leaving them in the feeder bin as I understand the pits may sprout faster with “worm action” as opposed to the windowsill method.
Also, the European Nightcrawlers I ordered from you have arrived in fine fettle and are settling into their new bin nicely! Thank you!
I have been composting with red wiggles for about 6 mos. I use a worm farm 360 and I have been getting about 10 lbs. a month of casting. I process all of there food with a food processor before I give it to them. I add shredded paper and egg shells that I have pulverized in a spice grinder. My tomatoes are the best ever and the plant are strong and organic. I am very carful about what I feed my worms ang asked Google about feeding them avocado skins who would have guessed that there was a blog dedicate to worms.
I have fed my worms all kinds of stuff. Lettuce, apple cores, pear cores, leaves, straw, egg shells, coffee filters and used grounds, butternut squash, and now avocados. Hopefully they will like the avocados. They seem to be reproducing as I saw baby worms crawling through the bin.
Yeah! They are still doing good and liking every thing, but the orange peels that I put in there initially.
Brian – Sounds great!
And not only is there a “blog dedicated to worms”, but there is a global community of “worm heads” that far bigger than you might imagine. The number in related Facebook groups alone must be up close to 20,000 by now.
Bottom-line – you are NOT alone! haha
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Mia – yeah citrus peels tend to take longer to break down. Definitely NOT a favorite food of the worms. They contain potent oils and likely need to undergo a much longer microbial (etc) break down before the worms will even go near them.
I am new to this site and just getting started . My first order of red worms will be at my home next Monday. I do have a small amount that I was experimenting with and found that the really like watermelon.
Hey there! I’ve had my worms a few months now. At first their bedding was too dry so I began watering them and now it’s gone a bit anaerobic. Is that a poblem? I figure I will holdoff feeding them and stop watering them entirely until I see conditions improve. I too feed them avocado skin and banana peels, both of which I cut into pieces. Also coffee grounds and all the other kitchen scraps. They seem happy still!
Hey Jake – if you have swampy conditions I recommend adding a dry, absorbent bedding material like shredded newsprint or shredded cardboard. Not sure what sort of system you are using but a lot of worm bins shouldn’t be watered at all. The liquid from decomposing food scraps is almost always more than enough to keep things moist (in plastic enclosed bins anyway).
My worms are coming tomorrow so thanks to all about their likes and dislikes it should help a lot.
Jack fruit is a popular in my bin. Also pineapple is at the top for me. I live in California and we get some bad avocados often just threw a bunch in my worm bin they seem happy.