I give mealworms to wild lizards. I have kept them in the fridge for months when the lizards stop eating during the winter. We have a shortage here too(Australia) but it seems suspicious and I wonder if they are being described as possible human food in the face of all the movements to replace meat. Registering them as food products edible by human would make them very expensive and the big industries would be locking down the supply and possibly even killing off what they cant control. Whatever is happening shouldn't be. Meal worms are easily bred insects and should be available in massive numbers. I know I might be totally wrong but I dont think so

I switch over to them in the Fall and the Blues eat them just fine. You need to rehydrate them though or they won't eat them. I just put some in a container, fill with hot water and by the time it cools they are ready to drain and put in a dish for them to eat. I usually make the switch sometime in September. This Spring I had the same female Blue come back (which is unusual as they don't overwinter here in WI) and I quickly got the dried worms in some water and once they were ready I put them out and she came and ate. They also work great during a prolonged wet period when the bugs aren't out as much. We had a 5 day cool/rainy stretch in June and I would put a dish of rehydrated dried worms along with the dish of live worms in the feeder. When the live ones were gone, they would eat the rehyrdated ones. I have a store here in town that sells the rehydrated worms for 6.99 for 5,000.....so much cheaper than the live worms!! I love it in the Fall when I can switch over to them. Donna

Hi all, I am in Australia and raising mealworms for the local Noisy Miners. I have tried this mealworm thing before to no avail. I have three full tubs of mealworms (from tiny to fully grown) under the house that are brimming with grain mites. I'm still going to strain these and feed them to the 'locals' but I need to buy more worms to begin a new farm. I've had to consider heating as the new colony will live under the house. The old one was inside the house and when the mites broke out, I had a LOT of cleaning to do! After looking into all heating options (and reading all of your advice), I am thinking of buying a ceramic heating lamp with a thermostat. The basic idea is to put the beetles/babies container directly under the lamp with empty containers either side (for the egg-filled strained beetle subtrate). These 'sister containers' will benefit from the lamp, but to avoid overheating of the beetles, I will put the thermostat sensor in that box. Hopefully, by keeping an eye on the temperature and humidity (with a cheap Thermometer & Humidity Gauge) I will avoid those horrible mites. Oh, and for anybody that is interested, I've been playing around with a beetle container that I saw on youtube with the mite infested beetles to find what works best before I begin the new colony. So far, the best that I have found was http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKJ52gW8i9M He does call it a 'Superworm box' but I've found that it works really well for the mealies (in a smaller box). I used a different substrate though, a roughly blended mix of corn flakes, wheat bix and oats. Instead of filling the bottom box, I gave it a little shake and let the loose stuff fall. When the beetles began to lay, the eggs/babies fell through and thrived in the lower box. Oh, I also used two of the same containers (he used a plastic container and a kitty litter container) and drilled air holes (with mesh) in the sides so the babies can breathe. I'll let you all know how it goes :)

Live mealworms may also suffer from relatively slow sales since even people that feed mealworms to their pet lizards, birds, and so on probably don't buy in bulk unless they're a breeder of such critters and therefore would have a constant and possibly even a daily need for such fare. As to a reasonable size to start with? The giant size might feed a few general population birds but without some care, it seems that you'd go though a container pretty quick. The smalls look tiny and you'd probably have to ration out a few more than you'd like to make a container last any amount of time. The medium size is what I'd try if I were that interested in feeding mealworms to draw in certain species. Price is right and there are enough that your mealworm experiment could last long enough for observation of any species that are drawn in just because of that addition to whatever you've been feeding on a regular basis. Long ago, I decided that within reason, if I had to ration what relatively small amount of funds I use for feeding the wildlife that comes to my little backyard compared to the enjoyment it brings me, I'd probably just take down my feeders and quit buying raw peanuts for the blue jays and that one damn ornery (but cute) squirrel that visits daily. I fully realize that not every budget is flexible enough to do that but I figure that I'm only here on this earth for a short while so why not enjoy what impacts my life and brings joy to my eyes while I'm here. Perusing a few websites on raising your own mealworms seems to be quite popular and while it doesn't look like the initial outlay would be much, would you use enough of the little buggers to make it worthwhile even if you just counted time and what space is required? Reading over those sites does remind me of a time not that long ago when every fishing and hunting magazine in existence (and they may still have them) had ads touting raising your own bigger and better fishing worms! "Yes Friends, you too can raise enough of my extra special extra large energetic red wigglers and nightcrawlers to go fishing any time you want and you'll never run out of fish bait!!!! Get your starter pack of worms NOW and in only days you'll have more worms than you can use. Send only $19.95 to PO Box XXXX, to get started." Not... Problem is that nightcrawlers won't live south of the Mason Dixon line unless you keep them in a refrigerator and most little red wigglers are just on the borderline of being so small that you almost have to use tweezers to put them on your fish hook. Too, both types have to be kept practically n the dark to keep them happy, temperature and moisture levels have to be maintained and appropriate worm food is not as easy to manage as they would have you think. Oh wait... the subject was mealworm acquisition, not fishin' worms. It appears I have strayed off subject again. Sorry bout that.