Robins will eat them like candy!

And Tufted Titmice love them too. You can even feed out the pupa if you want.

Chickadees, Nuthatches and even my Red Bellied Woodpecker eats them. Didn't know what you have around there but nearly everybody has Robins.

Forgive me for butting in i haven't posted on the forum for ages but i thought i should post that works for me.

I had too many pupae and worms myself then it dawned on me that the birds will eat pupae too. Nearly 50 extra pupae were gone that day.

I have hit on a method that helps me use up the largest worms up first. I put sheets of newspaper on top of the worm bedding. You don't have to cut them fancy just make them smaller than the size of the bin and loosely scatter the paper. You want 4 or 5 thicknesses. The worms will slowly eat the paper its food to them too.

Don't let the paper lay up the sides of your container. I find that if the worms can get up to the top they manage to find a way out of even the best lid.

When you go to get worms the larger worms and the ones old enough to start pupating will crawl between the layers of paper. And when you get to the last sheet you will find a swarm of worms just under the last sheet. It helps the worm catching process if there are at least 3 smaller sheets of paper over the top so you can move them one at a time. By collecting all the biggest worms off the top i usually can get them before they can finish pupating.

One other thing, when the worms are smallish when they pupate it means that they hadn't gotten enough moisture as they were growing. So they pupate small. I wasted a lot of veggies trying to figure out how much to feed them. Mostly i ended up with big dried out chunks of potato and carrot.

Then recently i came across this tip. Don't slice the potatoes up. Cut out some circles around the outside. The worms will eat into the potato hollowing it out. The skin on the spud helps keep it from drying out.

Its worked like a charm. I slice quarter sized holes on each end and a 2 or 3 around the sides and toss in the whole potato. The worms eat into the potato hollowing it out and the potato stays soft until only the skin is left. I can have 2 or 3 potatoes in the bin without worrying about the bran mix getting too wet.

I do pick up the spuds and shake out the worms and their poo while collecting worms. There are usually some big ones inside.

One last thing if you still have too many worms you can slow down their growth by cooling them down. Find a cooler spot for the worm container. Or you can stop there growth altogether by refrigerating them. Just take out a bunch of worms put them in some bran and put them in the fridge until you need them. Remember to add a few air holes in the lid.

good advice. I am an giubg ti diwbsuze akit, I think I will keep aa few in the garage to raise, just incase i get some birds next year, but the majority must go, i put some out for the robins today, though, they must not have found them yet. Makes sense about them maybe not getting enough moisture, although i did think I was keeping enough carrots, celery and potatoes in ther, 3 or 4 chunks, but then again, there are alot of worms in there, Bin two also has alot and they are getting bigger too. the potato idea is a good one. they go through a carrot in no time. The beetles are dying off now, so guess I will just leave the last bunch in the beetle box. they will probably be feeder size later in the summer. Thanks for tips!!!

My pleasure. I find other birds are feeding there babies at different times through the spring/summer and when you feed them you may get larger flocks in future years.

I started my worms in November and didn't have any worms large enough to feed out until the end of February i found that feeding the few i had at that time helped the local birds get through some very rough storms. That is also when i started seeing bluebirds. They were checking out the food and nest boxes then though they didn't start nesting until the beginning of May. Because the worms were always there i have 3 pairs of Bluebbirds this year only though only two pair are in my boxes.

While i was waiting for the bluebirds i fed nesting Nuthatches, Chickadees, Canadian Jays and had a few woodpeckers eating my extras.

I am going to be feeding year round. I just love the show.

Oh i thought of this after i posted my last post. Bluebirds will eat the dead beetles. Sometimes it takes them a couple days. I don't doubt that they will eat the live ones too. Thought i would try it the next time i have too many beetles.

Wow! don't know what I was typing there, but must have had my fingers on the wrong keys for sure! If the robins find them, I'm sure they will go fast. They are beginning to smell and I already sifted them once. Just too darn many, I guess I'll clean the beetles out tomorrow and put them out there too, Mama robin has a baby out there, Hubby saw a crow take off with one baby today and the two adults hot on it's trail, Hope it got away.

And here I am trying to build up my supply in case I get another flock of Blues to feed this winter. I want to have at least three bins of Beetles (hopefully four) to keep production going. I only have two bins right now because I haven't had enough worms to let pupate since I have to keep feeding them out. So I bought 5,000 in addition to what I have growing and filled a few bins with mealworms just for growing out. I am still feeding the Blues right now, but not too many since it is just the two of them. Once the young come (due to hatch Friday), I should have plenty.