White Office Paper

[WiggleWiggleWiggle]

Hello wiggle fans!   Yet another over-anxious noobie worm-parent here. I've had my new Worm City wormery for a few days, and having read lots of info on the web about what to do and not do I'm more confused than ever, and unexpectedly alarmed, so I decided it's time to ask the experts!

I don't read newspapers so was hoping to use shredded bank statements, bills etc as bedding instead (dampened of course), 'til I read somewhere that white office paper is bad for them  . Does the bleaching process make it too harmful or something? I can use shredded cardboard boxes instead if needs be, but would rather use stuff I already shred if I can get away with it. (I spent some time worrying that cardboard box glue would kill them, but now I think it's ok, and that's what's in there at the moment on top of the coir/soil.)

Also, having read that a bit of soil can help them get established, I got carried away and thought a lot of soil would be even better, and put a whole bucketful in there, mixed well into the coir. And smugly thought that with lots of soil to hide in they wouldn't feel the need to wander, and didn't put the wormery in a binbag or anything overnight (although I did leave a little nightlight outside the wormery the past couple of nights). Then yesterday I read that compost worms don't actually like a lot of soil, it's too gritty for them, and they live in different conditions to normal garden worms. Have I messed up big time? Will most of my worms have wandered off in the night? And I can see how they can climb out of the wormery and plop onto the floor, but is it possible for them to climb back in if they wanted to? It looks very tricky, but until recently I had no idea worms could climb at all! Any tips for attracting wanderers back out of my garden borders so I can put them back in the wormery, or is it not worth bothering?

I've had 2 or 3 corpses on the top each day, I'm assuming they got too traumatised by their journey so I'm trying not to worry about that yet. And at least there have been live ones in there too when I've not been able to resist peeking  .

Oh, and one last question - I have the bag of cereal based worm food that came with the wormery, and they had a handful of that on arrival. I know not to try to feed them anything else for a fortnight, then I can feed a bit of kitchen waste. When should I be giving them the rest of the cereal? A small handful each time I put kitchen waste in? Or should I be giving them a bit every couple of days now if they've eaten all their arrival dinner?

There was me thinking a wormery was just a fast compost bin I could chuck waste in and not worry about! Oh my! Now I understand why people write books about it!

[WillyWorm]

Hi wiggle, please relax or you will end up being worm food yourself lol. Worms are very forgiving and you have done nothing to cause major harm to your new pets. I will try to answer the questions you have asked.
1) office paper is fine there maybe some bleach in the paper but nothing to harm your worms. I've been using my bank statements and bills in my bin for a long while, in fact the worms enjoy them much more much more than I do. The glue used to make corrugated cardboard is a vegetable or animal glue and its good for your worms, they use it as food and it keeps air in the bin. With cardboard only use the matt sort not the shiny stuff (this can have a plastic laminate over it and also some of the inks are not good for the worms), remove any staples and avoid the glue which holds the box together.
2) a bucketful of soil is a bit much but it won't kill your worms but will slow them down a bit, how much depends of the sort of soil you have. Try to get more bedding into the bin every chance you get.
3) try not to leave the dry food in a big pile because it will clump together and could start to ferment. Try to incorporate it into the top half cm of bedding. In the early days of your bin it is best to feed little and often. By little I mean a spoonful every day until you are sure they are eating well. You can use the dry food with kitchen straps or save it for the days when you go out for a meal and have no scraps for your worms (you could take a "worm bag" with you and bring home the left-overs lol)

Try to relax it will soon come right and your new herd will be settled and working hard for you.

Hope that helps just ask if we can help then we will.

Willy

[WillyWorm]

There is a thread a bit lower down titled "Is shredded newspaper toxic" in it WormyMcwormerson gives some great information about newspaper ink. Please check it out.

Willy

[WiggleWiggleWiggle]

Thank you so much WillyWorm! I shall do my best to chill out 'til the 14 day settling-in time is over . I gave the guys another inch of damp shredded cardboard box last night, so hopefully that should help, especially in this hot weather.

I saw the shredded newspaper post already, but thanks for pointing it out. And thank you for all your hard work on this forum giving us your calm advice!

[WillyWorm]

Your welcome wiggle anytime. Just one thing, worms can't count the passing of time or days. Use information about time, amounts etc as a guild not a definitive appointment. Worms are like me "bad time keepers"

All the best
Willy