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Meal Worms

Elbourne
10 years ago

My red wiggler bin has been taken over by meal worms; thousands of them.

I added a good bit of food scraps a couple of weeks ago, including a lot of bread and mashed potatoes. I was low on shredded paper bedding so just left it alone. The other day I peaked in to discover the total transformation of the bin. I can actually hear the meal worms munching on whatever is in there. I dumped another full load of moldy bread on the top and they had devoured it by the next morning. About five pounds of used coffee grounds also disappeared in short order. The black soupy mix has a pungent smell and the meal worms seem very happy.

My question is, should I be concerned? My goal is to make nutrient rich vermacompost for the garden. Since the meal worms seem to eat even faster than the red wigglers, I might just want to keep things going the way they are, but I have no idea as to the value of the waste they are createing. What do you think?