Coffee grounds>?

[joseph]

Many people who grow worms for compost say the worms absolutely love coffee grounds. However, since I'm feeding these worms to newts, would this be safe? Perhaps they would be harmed by a dose of caffeine...its no good for young newts to stay up too late

I found out today Starbucks(at least one I went to) is now offering coffee grounds for free to people who want them as compost.

 

[joan]

I think most of the caffeine is leached out into your cup of coffee and doesn't stay in the grounds. But newts are nocturnal, so a little caffeine buzz shouldn't bother them, lol. Try asking for just the decaff grounds, maybe they'll set them aside for you?

 

[paris]

i dont drink coffee but im a serious tea drinker (replaced my pepsi habit with tea-so about 1/2+ gallon a day) do you know if tea 'grounds' will work the same? i know coffee is a bean-so may be more nutritious, and tea is merely leaves -but is there a parallel there? i just bought 1 pound of euro night crawlers and would like to have them 'happy' before they die....

 

[jennifer]

Worms are almost certainly not affected by caffeine. In fact, humans may be the only species that IS affected by caffeine. I believe that it affects us due to some genetic defect in our uric acid metabolism, but I may have this all wrong. Virtually any plant material that you use will contain SOME weird chemical. We humans are fixated on caffeine because it has an obvious effect on us, but plants of all kinds are chock full of chemicals with various activities.

In other words, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[edward]

Caffeine was developed as a defense against insects feeding on the plants (as were most of those other compounds that have an effect on us) and is toxic to some invertebrates. The caffeine is probable removed from the coffee grounds for the most part as caffeine is pretty soluable and dissolves early on in the coffee making process.

Ed

 

[joseph]

Thanks for the info guys! I remember somewhere where it is mentioned that their were plans on using caffeine to kill coqui frogs in Hawaii so I was thinking if perhaps being fed worms fed a diet including coffee grounds could expose them to higher amounts of caffeine. Guess it isn't quite the case.

Paris: I throw teabags in with the worms and they dissapear very quickly.

 

[ElaineCheeko104]

Re: Coffee grounds>?

I'm going to dry my coffee grounds out enough to put them in a leg of an old pair of stockings and soak it in dechlorinated water and see if I can flush out some more coffee.

 

[ElaineCheeko104]

Re: Coffee grounds>?

I soaked the coffee grounds until the water was almost clear. Put them out to dry and then I'm going to add them into the worm bin.
I don't drink alot of coffee, so I had a 1/4 cup of coffee grounds.