I bought dried mealworms for my Dad to feed his bluebirds in NY. Although it took them a little while to realize they were food, once they did, they devoured them like crazy and even fed them to their young if I remember correctly.

BN

Thanks BN. If I can ever get out of our driveway and into town (before spring).........I'll buy some. :)

I bought a quart size container of dried mealworms and tried them in and about my backyard feeders with no success at all however, I don't have regular bluebird visitors either so didn't know what to expect. The regular feeder birds (sparrows, doves, cardinals, and juncos) ignored the dried mealworms entirely while still gorging themselves on other seed offerings. While the mealworm casings (because essentially that's all that's left after drying) eventually disappeared, I've always felt that they simply disintegrated in the weather or blew away and weren't actually eaten by the birds.
In another local area where there ARE bluebirds and I occasionally "bait out" an area for my photography hobby, I found about the same level of feathered interest (zero) from multiple species (all of the above plus chickadees. titmice, and a couple of other species).
In areas with a steady or high seasonal number of bluebirds, the dried mealworms may be a reliable food source but I won't be trying them again in my area of DFW.

If you're in a different area of the country however, YMMV.
Steve

I had 6 Bluebirds this morning at my heated water dish even in a snow storm. They do eat the dried meal worms that I put out but are more drawn to the available water. Last week it was -25 degrees here in mid-eastern Minnesota but still they stay.
Jude (Scandia MN)

I was at our local Tractor Supply Co. yesterday and was going to buy the dried mealworms. .....but they 2 brands they had were all from China. I'm trying to avoid foods from China......even for the birds. :(
So I didn't get any.

I've just begun to raise my own mealworms. My sister has been raising them for years to feed to her chickens. As the news about the dramatic decreases in pollinating insects becomes more urgent, I decided to provide some protein source for the nestlings. Wild birds feed their young almost exclusively on insects or worms. So, as our insect populations decrease, so will our birds. I'm going to try putting live mealworms out on platforms and directly on the ground once it starts to warm up. Right now I'm just letting my worm population mature so they'll lay eggs. Hopefully, I'll have a healthy crop by spring. They really are amazingly simple to raise. And they can be refrigerated to keep them in the worm stage, rather than turning into the beetles. But, only beetles lay eggs, so you need to allow some to mature to keep the supply of worms coming.

Martha

Martha