Worms can be fed leftover pizza crusts if a few are added at a time, if they are covered with bedding material, a worm blanket and a lid. Pizza crust can attract ants and mice if it is not covered properly. Worm farms or bins with good fitting lids are perfect for keeping rodents out and leaving your worms to eat the old pizza crusts.
It is best if pizza crusts do not contain too much cheese as this can eb high in salt and the fat can quickly go rancid. If pizza crusts still have a lot of topping left on them it is better to avoid putting them in your worm farm.
Pizza crusts that are mostly bread without toppings are fine to go in your worm bin. Just start with a small amount and add more as your worms get through them.
Worms will break down and digest pizza crusts over 1-2 weeks depending on the weather and the other food they have. I always like to add a mix of food scraps including fruit and vegetable peelings with pizza crusts. This gives the worms a range of food to feed on. This will keep the bacterial balance in your bin and prevent it from smelling.
How to add pizza crusts to your worm bin to avoid smells
These 5 tips will help you to add pizza crusts to your worm bin and avoid smells, rodents, flies and ants. Follow these tips for worm farming success.
1. Make sure the pizza crusts do not have topping left on them
The first step before putting pizza crusts in your worm bin is to make sure that they do not have topping left on them. Cheese, ham or other meats will start to smell quickly in your worm bin and can go rancid.
You can cut the toppings off and just leave the crusts and they will be broken down quickly in your worm bin. This will reduce the chance of ants and flies being attracted to your bin as well.
2. Add fruit and vegetable scraps at the same time
I always like to add a mix of fruit and vegetable scraps at the same time I add bread products like pizza crusts. Add a few handfuls of scraps at a time and make sure that pizza crusts don’t make up more than ¼ of the mix.
Choose around 3 handfuls of vegetable scraps like potato and apple peel and 1 handful of pizza crusts. Small worm farms like mine can digest around 4-6 pizza crusts in around 2 weeks. Larger farms will be able to digest more but start small.
3. Start with small amounts and gradually increase
It is best to add a small amount of pizza crusts at any one time to see how quickly the worms can consume them. After the first lot have been fully broken down, you can add more. You can freeze pizza crusts until you are ready to add more to your worm bin.
Start with 4-6 pizza crusts as a good guide. Remember that worms will break down food quicker in the warmer seasons of summer and spring. Reduce your feeding rate in winter when the weather cools and the worms decrease their activity levels.
4. Cover the pizza crusts with worm bedding material
After adding pizza crusts to your worm bin it is important to cover them with a thin layer of bedding material. This could be shredded, plain paper, fall leaves, straw or sugar cane mulch. This will help to create a barrier between the bugs and your pizza crusts.
Pizza crusts that are uncovered in your worm bin can attract ants, flies and mice. A covering of worm bedding will help to hide them and let the worms go to work to break them down.
5. Use a worm blanket and a lid
The final steps are to cover the pizza crusts and worms with a worm blanket. This will create a dark, moist environment which is perfect for worms to break down the food. Worms will feel safe to dig up through the castings to eat the food.
The worms will break down the pizza crusts and fruit and vegetable scraps and turn them into worm castings. These worm castings can be dug out carefully and added straight to your garden. You can also dilute 1-2 handfuls in a bucket and water your plants with this mix.
Worm castings are fantastic for improving your soil before planting vegetables, top dressing citrus or for any plant in your garden to increase the levels of organic matter.
Worms will digest any organic material that you put in there. The key is to minimize the amount of salt and sugar added to the bin because this can attract ants. Avoid adding any meat or cheese on the pizza crusts to keep these pests out.
Final Tip
Covering the crusts with worm castings will also work to keep bugs out of your worm farm and help them to break down quicker. Soil bacteria will move in quicker to break down the pizza crusts. The worms will eat the soil bacteria and turn them into worm castings too.
Can I feed worms pizza crusts? | Summary
You can safely feed worms plain pizza crusts without toping or fillings. Avoid feeding worms stuffed crust pizza because the cheese or meat can quickly rot and smell. Mix through other vegetables or fruit when you add pizza crusts so your worms have a variety of foods to choose.
I am an accredited practicing dietitian, experienced gardener and a dedicated cook. I love writing and sharing my experience so you can learn from my successes and mistakes.