Human hair, dog hair, in the worm bin?

by Linda
(California)

Worms amongst some dog hair from a worm farm

Worms amongst some dog hair from a worm farm

Just heard that human hair is a good additive for a worm farm. How about dog hair?

Answer:

Hello Linda,

you are quite right human hair is an excellent worm food and get recycled in worm farms and worm bins.

The same can be said about Dog hair and cat hair. Even if it takes quite a while for the hair to start to decompose at which state it turns into a suitable worm food.

But in the meantime the hairballs form soft and fluffy areas inside the worm farm which can hold lots of oxygen.

I found very often not only mature worms but especially tiny baby worms inside piles of human-, cat- and dog hair that we had dumped into our worm farms.

So by all means add hair to the food waste and garden waste in your worm farm and let the worms recycle it.

Kind regards and happy worming


Stephan
Admin
worm-composting-help.com

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Jul 08, 2023
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starstarstarstarstar 		Hair killed a bunch of my worms
by: Tori

I put a clump of hair from my hairbrush in my compost bin with brand new worms. Unfortunately I probably lost at least half of them because of it. They got all tangled up in it and it cut them all up. Attempting to fluff the bedding would catch a strand or two and pull it, tightening it around the wormies. I ended up taking almost all of it out to find the hair clump and sift out the dead worms. Hopefully the ones that are left won’t find any strands I missed and massacre themselves again. ☹️
Jul 12, 2019
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starstarstarstarstar 		Pets treated for fleas? Can their hair be used in a worm bin?
by: Stephan

Hello Anna,

thank you for your message. I think it might be a good idea to either ask your vet about the possible dangers of the anti-flea medication for your worms or alternatively make a small test with some of the hair in a tiny container. Add a few worms a little bedding and some of the hair as food and see if those worms will still be alive after a few weeks once they have fed on the hair. If the worms are doing fine the dog hair should be good to feed to your worms as long as it is fed in moderation.


Kind regards


Stephan Kloppert

Author of "How to start a profitable worm business on a shoestring budget"


Editor of www.worm-composting-help.com
Jul 08, 2019
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starstarstarstarstar 		Pets treated for fleas? Can their hair be used in a worm bin?
by: Anna

Thanks for the great suggestions!!
Our dogs get oral flea/ heart worm medication (Sentinel) and our cat gets flea drops once a month.
Do either of these medications pose a threat to our worm bin when we add the pet fur?
May 09, 2018
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starstarstarstarstar 		Dyed Hair in a worm bin?
by: Stephan

Hi,

It depends what kind of chemicals the hair dye consists of I would say!

If there are no harmful chemicals in it than the hair that has been treated with it should be just fine and could be used as worm food.

If in doubt it is always a good idea to use just a few worms and expose them to the dyed hair or other potential worm food in question. if the worms are still fine a few weeks later the dyed hair should be fine to be used as worm food.

Please let me know what you find out about the subject.

Kind regards

Stephan Kloppert

Author of How to start a profitable worm business on a shoestring budget
May 05, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		How about dyed hair?
by: Anonymous

- Is it safe to put dyed hair in a bin? It would seem that if hair dye is safe enough to go on a human head every 3-4 weeks, then it's safe enough for the worm bin?

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