Hi guys,

Just wanted to let you know there’s a little porky pie going around in regards to the consumption of substrate by worms in a worm farm.

No doubt there were good intentions to try and offer helpful info, but I thought I’d just clarify the ‘porky’ in that pie.

So this is what is being said…

“Worms only eat the microbes, not the food.”

I started writing a white paper explaining more about how it all works, but I’ll just give a brief version for now…

Microbes will populate a food source and begin breaking it down. The worms then come in after and suck / slurp up the microbe rich substrate by everting their pharynx and using it like a scoop.

Pretty cool… right?

So yes, technically the worms are going after the microbes because this is where they derive the majority of their nutrition. However, what they are also doing is ingesting the broken down matter at the same time, which is populated with microbes.

Make sense?

So do they actually ‘eat’ the food (as in ‘chewing’)? No.

Do they only consume the microbes? No

Are they going after the microbes on the food? Yes

Do they ingest the broken down microbe rich substrate, whilst going after the microbes? Yes

So the better way to describe the process is as follows….

Microbes firstly help to break down the food and then the worms ‘ingest’ the broken down microbe rich substrate via a sort of sucking & slurping action.

Depending on one’s perspective, I guess you could say this action of ingestion is the worms actually ‘eating’ the food. So it just depends on how you choose to interpret the info.

Is it a big deal?… Meh… Nah… not really. It’s pretty harmless really, just like our friendly little squirmy mates.

Is it interesting?… Of course! Everything about vermicomposting is interesting… right?

So there ya go folks. A cool little worm friendly fact to help brighten your day!

I’ve also shared a cool vid below showing a blue worm doing what I’ve just explained.