Yes, I grow and feed mealworms. It takes a while to get the colony where you want it to be. I keep two containers of beetles now. I found that one was not enough. I always scoop some of the small larva out to save for pupa to make more beetles. I think I have about 100 beetles or so per container. During the winter months they are slow growing, so I put reptiles heaters under a couple of the containers to speed things up. The Bluebirds, along with others, come every day for the mealworms and suet I leave out for them. During nesting season, they especially appreciate them.

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

The mealworms I ordered from NY Worms are the large size, just about an inch or so long--the same as Grubco's large size. Several of the other suppliers I checked were all out of this size. As for getting worms from WBU, I sometimes do it in a pinch but it's way too expensive if you're feeding on a regular basis. I think our Wild Bird Garden store is selling them 500 for between $6 and $7. Their prices have also gone up a bit due to the shortage, at least locally. Kathy

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.