Hi all I am in the starting stage of worm or verm composting. few questions on what I am able to feed my worms.

am I able to put in toilet paper of course clean. white paper plates as long as not foam.

how about vacuum cleaner bags and or the dirt. are white coffee filter with coffee grounds ok to use. how about water mellow chunks or do I just put the rine part in.

thank you all.

Jerry

Our worms love any kind of melon rind. Haven't tried drier lint, usually put that in regular compost pile. The worms don't seem to like onions or citrus, but they love coffee and tea grounds. Some folks say not to put the paper in but that's not been a problem for us. Of course we only use unbleached chlorine free stuff, and shredded office paper that's all acid free and only soy based toner etc.

I would just put the napkins and paper plates in the regular compost unless you know them to be free of chlorine or other chemicals that might harm the worms.

We have long composted napkins and paper plates, clean or dirty. We have never had any problems with that. You can pretty much compost "anything that has lived and died", as long as there isn't too much salt/sodium. Most will caution against adding dairy and meat products, and that is the safest way to go, but we have added them to our compost pile, in small amounts, on occasion without any major problems. Worms love any and all parts of melons and they love cornmeal, oatmea, any leftover cereal and as previously mentioned, coffee grounds.

The biggest cautions should be regarding overfeeding and over watering. Too much food/water will cause problems pretty fast. Plan to feed only as much as they can clean up in a reasonable time. If you feed every day, feed as much as they can eat in a day. If you feed twice a week, feed only as much as they can eat in that time.

Every now and then, I put a lot of eggshells in the blender and feed that to the worms, for calcium. Can't remember where I read to do that...

Jerry, all of those things should be ok, in moderation.

You never want to overload your bin with any one things, or too much of anything. You can pm me if you would like more info or some helpful links.

I'll be teaching an interactive vermicomposting class, and including a bin with worms on Friday, Nov 19th from 10am-noon. Everything from how to make your bin, to maintenance, to harvesting vermicompost, to using your vermicompost in the garden, yard, and pots.
email me if interested: rancher@txwormranch.com.

What about leaves from plants that are considered toxic? Can I just throw all houseplant dropped leaves into the worm bin, or should I be checking for toxicity first?

I think the houseplant leaves will be fine, as long as no pesticide/herbicide has been used. Red wigglers are amazing creatures and worms have been used in other regions of the world for soil remediation of toxic spills. I would suggest that moderation in all things is the key to successful worm composting (or human diets!). I wouldn't overload a habitat with any one source of food.