Has anyone here used expired (or not) store bought mixes, such as pancake mix, as food for their worms? What about instant mash potatoes?
I recently got a case of pancake mix and 2 cases of instant mash potatoes that expired in 2011 & 2015! Talk about old! Both actually look fine and neither has weevils, surprisingly enough. They were sealed plastic bags so I guess that’s why.
I decided to give them bath a shot to see how they would do. My only concern was the salt and baking powder in the pancake mix, wasn’t worried about the potatoes since they don’t have salt or butter in them, just potatoes and powdered milk. They seem to like both just fine, but I only feed a small amount of the pancake mix since it’s high in protein and carbs, similar to worm chow. The potatoes I mixed with water and scooped some in a corner of one of my big bins. The next day the potatoes were loaded with some very happy looking worms, that weren’t too happy about the disturbance! The pancake mix was completely gone in two days, may have been sooner but I didn’t check the day after.
I was just wondering what crazy foods others have tried with their worms. I know powdered milk isn’t really out there, nor is dried potatoes, but never heard of pancake mix. Maybe it’s fine due to the age? Who knows but they didn’t seem to have trouble with it. I do plan to do a longer term test using a smaller sized bin to make sure there are no long term effects. If not I may just mix a bag in with a big batch of worm chow to stretch it a bit further. I hate tossing food if the worms will eat it. If there’s a long term issue then it’ll go into the hot outside compost pile to break down there. Guess it’ll need a good mix with cardboard first to avoid getting sticky…unless that would create a mess. In that case at least I can say I tried to save it from the landfill and toss it.