"I need to feed the worms."

I find it hilarious that I say things like "It's time to feed the worms." or "I need to feed the worms."

No, I do not have a tapeworm so I am not speaking of worms in my belly. Nor does Banzai have worms so I am not speaking of worms in his belly either.

I am speaking of the worms who live in our compost pile.

(On a random note, I was googling images of worms and this website popped up. I warn you not to look at these images if you're squeamish. You will probably puke, gag, or something of the like. I think I have a steel stomach because I want to get in there and operate and play around.... I should have been a doctor.)

Last fall, my roommate decided that he would like to start a compost pile since we always have little scraps of fruits and veggies that randomly find their way into the trash. He also eats a lot of eggs, and I drink a lot of coffee, so we needed a way that the earth could benefit from our "trash." He did a little research and came to the conclusion that we could minimize our trash output by donating our natural food scraps to some worms. So, he went to the bait shop and purchased some worms (don't ask me what kind because I don't know), put them in a container that he built, threw in some food scraps, placed shredded paper on top, and we were good to go!


We usually keep our scraps in a large tupperware container for about 2 weeks or until it gets full. Once one of those limits are reached, we feed the worms and cover the food with shredded paper. The shredded paper comes from my paper shredder, which is full of important personal information, no doubt. I mean who in their right mind is going to sift through that in a compost pile?! So not only am I essentially recycling paper but I am also preventing identity theft. Go me!

Here is a great site about composting with worms. There are tons of other websites that teach you the in's and out's of such a practice, but this is a good start. NC State University also has a great website completely devoted to composting with worms.

For most of the year, the worms and their house stay outside in the shade on the porch. When the summer months are here, however, we're going to have to find a new location for the house. It gets into the upper 90s here and that's about 20 degrees too hot for the worms. I refuse to let them inside the house because fruit flies do live deep down in the soil sometimes. (And my roommate emits enough smells - no need to add to that.)

So, if anyone has any suggestions on how to create a climate controlled area for our pet worms, please let me know! As if the living creatures in our house are not already spoiled enough, now we have to go and spoil the ones who live in dirt. Geeze.