Meal worms

12 years ago

Meal worms have started to become available locally and I am wondering if anyone has had experience with them. I have read on the net that it is not a good idea to feed outdoor birds with them but gave no reason why. Any thoughts?

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Comments (3)

starlinka
12 years ago
I heard it too - mealworms should be used as occasional treats, but not as main food source for birds. Bellow is link that explains it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mealworms info
myfrozenlittlepond
12 years ago
I cannot think of any reason why offering mealworms to wild birds would be harmful. When used as food for a captive bird, such as an injured or orphaned bird that does not have access to a variety of other food sources, they may be nutritionally deficient. Commercially available mealworms and crickets can be "gut-loaded" by feeding a nurtitional food source to them prior to offering them to the bird. The average wild bird that is using your meal worms as an occasional snack and even feeding its young with some of them is not going to be harmed. They will feed on many other insects that will balance the diet (and fruits and possibly seeds depending on the species).
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I just called Rainbow farms that produces much of the mealworm castings in the LA area and the lady I talked to said the bags of castings, which are mostly the skin molted off the growing mealworms, do usually have some live darkling beetles and live mealworms in them, but she didn't know if they would be harmful to a garden. I don't want to use this stuff if suddenly I will have beetles and mealworms eating up my plants and vegetables and fruit. So does anyone know for sure if they would be safe to use?
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kendra2003
12 years ago
I feed mealworms year round. They have never caused any harm. The average number of clutches in this area for Eastern Bluebirds are two per season. The Bluebirds here almost always have three clutches when they're supplemented. And as Myfrozenlittlepond pointed out, they do not rely exclusively on them. They still feed their young all sorts of things. It just makes their life a bit easier. They do not come to depend on them. If you run out, they simply hunt for insects.

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Meal worms

Comments (3)

starlinka

myfrozenlittlepond

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kendra2003

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