wormery question

dannie

Would worms find (non-glossy) shredded paper and cardboard harmful/poisonous if it has a variety of own inks/pencil on it? Or, would it be better to compost it more sparingly in a compost bin? Thanks.

Jake'sGran

I put shredded documents and torn newspapers in there. They rot down easily amongst the peelings and banana skins etc. I would not overdo the cardboard though - how do you shred that? I use egg shells sparingly too as
they don't seem to break down much. Now and again I add water and also empty out some used pot soil into it. The worms love it all.

angelavdavis

I don't tend to have much room in my wormery for paper - although cardboard egg boxes go in there. I put my shredding office paper into the compost bins, layered with woody chippings and wet green matter.

dannie

Thanks for the replies. What I mean by 'shredded' is paper and cardboard cut up with scissors that contains felt tip, biro or pencil on it. Hence wondering whether these inks/lead cause any problems for worms?

angelavdavis

No I can't imagine it would do any harm - particularly as its not going to be high volume anyway and you are feeding them other food matter.

webwalker

Only cardboard to worry about is corrugated cardboard some of the glues they use are toxic, cereal boxes etc are no problem, the lead in a pencil isnt lead its graphite/carbon and safe, my worms eat all my shredded bank statements and sensitive documents. Never have any problems getting rid of eggshells, I grind these down in an old coffee mill and sprinkle them on top of the wormery.

Most pencils, paints inks etc are now quite safe especialy if for child use so no worries there.

dannie

'Started a wormery yesterday so thanks for the tips.

Travelqueen

good luck
couldn't get on with mine at all. changed to a bokashi and compost bin in the end

paulstar

Travelqueen wrote: »

good luck
couldn't get on with mine at all. changed to a bokashi and compost bin in the end

I tried a wormery too and all seemed well for a couple of weeks but the worms died. So I bought some more worms and started again, but the same thing happened. I probably wasn't doing it right.

Dustykitten

Egg shells I use crushed up around plants to help deter slugs.

I regularly add paper receipts, etc to the wormery to stop it becoming too wet.

I try not to add potato peelings as I find these sprout, grow through the holes and clog the whole thing up.

Lotus-eater

webwalker wrote: »

Only cardboard to worry about is corrugated cardboard some of the glues they use are toxic,

I've never heard of this before and can't find anything with a quick search of google. Do you have any more information, I use loads of cardboard in my garden,