Redworms will thrive on any kind of vegetable waste you create while
preparing food. Here's a partial list to consider: potato peelings,
citrus rinds, the outer leaves of lettuce and cabbage, spinach
stems, cabbage and cauliflower cores, celery butts, plate scrapings,
spoiled food like old baked beans, moldy cheese and other leftovers,
tea bags, egg shells, juicer pulp. The worms' absolute favorite
seems to be used coffee grounds though these can ferment and make a
sour smell.
Drip coffee lovers can put the filters in too. This extra paper
merely supplements the bedding. Large pieces of vegetable matter can
take a long time to be digested. Before tossing cabbage or
cauliflower cores or celery butts into the compost bucket, cut them
up into finer chunks or thin slices. It is not necessary to grind
the garbage. Everything will break down eventually.
Putting meat products into a worm box may be a mistake. The odors
from decaying meat can be foul and it has been known to attract mice
and rats. Small quantities cut up finely and well dispersed will
digest neatly. Bones are slow to decompose in a worm box. If you
spread the worm casts as compost it may not look attractive
containing whitened, picked-clean bones. Chicken bones are soft and
may disappear during vermicomposting. If you could grind bones
before sending them to the worm bin, they would make valuable
additions to your compost. Avoid putting non-biodegradable items
like plastic, bottle caps, rubber bands, aluminum foil, and glass
into the worm box.
Do not let your cat use the worm bin as a litter box.. The odor of
cat urine would soon become intolerable while the urine is so high
in nitrogen that it might kill some worms. Most seriously, cat
manure can transmit the cysts of a protozoan disease organism called
_Toxoplasma gondii,_ although most cats do not carry the disease.
These parasites may also be harbored in adult humans without them
feeling any ill effects. However, transmitted from mother to
developing fetus, _Toxoplasma gondii _can cause brain damage. You
are going to handle the contents of your worm bin and won't want to
take a chance on being infected with these parasites.
Most people use some sort of plastic jar, recycled half-gallon
yogurt tub, empty waxed paper milk carton, or similar thing to hold
kitchen garbage. Odors develop when anaerobic decomposition begins.
If the holding tub is getting high, don't cover it, feed it to the
worms.
It is neater to add garbage in spots rather than mixing it
throughout the bin. When feeding garbage into the worm bin, lift the
cover, pull back the bedding with a three-tine hand cultivator, and
make a hole about the size of your garbage container. Dump the waste
into that hole and cover it with an inch or so of bedding. The whole
operation only takes a few minutes. A few days later the kitchen
compost bucket will again be ready. Make and fill another hole
adjacent to the first. Methodically go around the box this way. By
the time you get back to the first spot the garbage will have become
unrecognizable, the spot will seem to contain mostly worm casts and
bedding, and will not give off strongly unpleasant odors when
disturbed.