Will Worms Eat Moss?

As I mentioned in the previous worm entry, I haven't seen a lot of material about worms eating moss.  It is microscopic, so maybe it fits in the diet.  As far as Internet entries are concerned, I didn't really find anything conclusive.  To me, that's a signal to experiment.  So that's what I did.  I decided to experiment with worm bin 1 since most of my African Night Crawlers are still there (it's my main vermicompost bin).  From my constant fiddling with the contents, I'd say that it's probably 60% processed.  Using my trusty trowel, I scraped off some moss sheets from our garden and placed them on top of the pile.  Those would be the predominantly light green parts you see at the bottom of the picture.

I then covered the moss with some bedding.  When I started this bin, I put in whole newspapers (no shredding).  That's why I still have a lot of those.  It just looks black because it's been mixed in when the contents for a long time, but make no doubt about it.  There's a lot of paper on top of the moss.   Would it take a day?  A week?  Would the worms try a mass exodus if they don't like moss?

Only time will tell.  After covering the moss with chunks of semi-decomposed newspaper, I covered everything with a whole page of a newspaper.  My only purpose though is to make sure light doesn't come in.  Anyway, after two days, the results are inconclusive.  I think the moss sheets have been halved, but I can't be sure.  And, I did find a lot of what seemed to be worm castings just beside the moss sheets.  For now, I will go with the thought that my worms ate the moss.  In fact, I put in a couple more sheets today in another part of the bin.   Let's see again in a couple of days.

How about you?  Do your worms eat moss?

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