vermiculture

[doofy]

I've got a compost can sitting out on my patio, no worms, starting to decay, mold, etc.

If I used this to prime a vermiculture bin, would I be harming the worms with the mold?

[Jim Kingdon]

I don't think so. The mold is what the worms eat (along with bacteria associated with the food breaking down).

If you want to play it safe, you can add the compost-in-progess gradually (after starting the worms with newspaper or whatever they suggest as the "starter" bedding).

But we've never been highly particular about our startup process, and things have generally seemed to work out (we've killed a few worms, but those were pretty clearly due to too much heat or too much cold).