Apples are a great fruit to have in the house year-round. We love them in any form, juice, cooked, fresh, etc.
From sweet apple pies, to sliced apples for snack-time, apples are great for the whole family. Part of their charm is that they do not go bad as quickly as other fruits in our bowls.
Yes, worms do eat apples. If ever your apples stay in the fruit bowl long enough to go bad then there is no need to worry about any extra food waste, as the worms in your worm composting bin will simply love them!
In fact, they will eat the whole thing – don’t even worry about taking out the seeds.
Do worms eat apple peel?
Yes, worms do eat apple peel.
One of the great things about apples is that they just need a quick rinse before swallowing them. No added preparation needed and no pesky peeling to do.
When baking them, either in a pie, on a tart, or into a sauce, many of us do opt for the peeling process before-hand.
The peel can be quite a rough texture to keep in a dish, especially as opposed to its softer inside that becomes mushy and ready to swallow.
So, what do we do with all of this leftover, nutritious peel?
There is no need for the skin to go to waste. It is indeed nutritious and can serve its’ purpose in your household by feeding some hungry creatures, just maybe not your family. How about feeding them to the worms in your worm bin?
The worms will appreciate nearly any organic matter that you put in the worm bin and apple peel is no exception.
Just as with a banana peel, this peel is full of vitamins and nutrients that are good for the soil and the little creatures below.
All apples are great for worms, red ones, green ones, crab apples, etc. If you do decide to responsibly dispose of your kitchen waste by using it in your worm compost, then do make sure that you are balancing the apples out with other things.
A big harvest or a big shop can result in an abundance of fruit that we just can’t devour before their best-by date comes around.
Simply throwing them away would be a huge waste of food and money. Plenty of species of worms love all kinds of fruits and apples do indeed make for good worm feed.
So, share your food scraps with your small friends and you will avoid waste by gaining a healthy compost for a future harvest.
Why do worms like eating apples?
There are multiple reasons why worms like eating apples.
First of all, apples are quite soft.
Although yes, they do crunch when we bite into them, once they begin decaying, they do become soft and their outer layer is not too difficult for the wrigglers to make their way through.
Other fruits can have very thick skins that would pose too much of a problem for the worm before the decaying process has done its job.
Apples are also quite moist fruits and, as they decay, the dampness from them just seeps through into the soil, providing the perfect texture for the worms to live in comfortably.
A common problem with certain fruits, such as melons, is that their moisture becomes too overpowering for the worm environment and, in the case of a worm bin, can be the cause of an unhealthy environment for the little creatures. Apples are just damp enough on the whole!
Apples are also, as you know, rich in vitamins and nutrients that are great for just about anyone’s health.
For those of us who own bins or vermicomposting systems, we are well aware that feeding the worms the best foods possible is only to our advantage, as they will produce better castings (worm poop), enriching our compost and soil.
Would you like to know more about what to feed your vermicomposter? Get looking into our guide on whether or not worms eat bread – and if it’s safe to leave shells from eggs every so often in your new compost pile!
