Wormcity Forum

I had a problem with ants, moistened the wormery as advised, and then had a problem with pot worms. So my next step was to empty the contents of my shredder into the wormery to soak up the excess moisture. They clearly liked it as most of the shredded paper has gone, as has quite a bit of the shredded cardboard I chucked in on top.

I usually only shred paper with my name and address, but this got me thinking about shredding more. I think I am not supposed to give them glossy paper (like magazines) but what about coloured paper or plain paper with coloured print (e.g. logos)?

Hi, you are right you should not use glossy paper like magazines. The inks on other coloured paper are fine these days, a few years ago they were a problem and they were considered unsafe to use.
I find my herd prefer shredded corrugated cardboard, I collect a stock of this on the weekly supermarket trip. I pick up the empty cardboard tray which had contained tin food, these are easily shredded in a domestic paper shredder but like paper do use the glossy card (sometimes it’s got a plastic sheet in it)
Willy

When putting shredded paper in are we supposed to put it in as it is (dry) or do we wet it first?

Hi, like a lot of worm questions the answer is it depends. I only ever use dry paper/cardboard for bedding. That way the bedding absorbs excise moisture from the food. But if you feel things are too dry or if you use a lot of dry food then you should wet the paper before putting it into your bin.
You did mention you had had problem with ants which can be a sign of a dry bin, so you need to judge what will be best.
You could put in half the new bedding having damped it and check a few days later and add more paper either wet or dry to make an adjustment to the moisture level.
Baz