Mealworm 'storage'.

[Kleftiwallah]

My mealworm breeding programme is going extremely well, so well in fact that I have ooodles of worms but the birds (robins) don't seem to be in the area for some reason.

Is there any way in which I can 'store' some mealworms? Can I freeze them and defrost as required and pop them out in small quantities so the birds in winter can eat them? I see "freeze dried" worms in the shops. ? Cheers, Tony.

[loripo]

Have a look on this site - some way down it mentions 'roasting' as a preservation method.

Raising mealworms

I hope you're not going to do this in the kitchen

[heliart]

I, and perhaps others would be really interested in your breeding method.
I tried a mealworm farm last year, but it was not really a success, even though I spent ages sorting larvae and beetles into separate containers etc.

Cheers.

[Kleftiwallah]

Going to jot down a few observations when I've got my thoughts in order! re: mealworm breeding. As there are not a lot of birds in the garden this time of year (no idea why) the hedgehog thinks all his birthdays have come at once)! Cheers, Tony.

[Kleftiwallah]

Well, I didn’t do anything special. I ordered the mealworms and when waiting for them to arrive, I bought a storage box from the “cheapy cheap” shop, (sorry, the Singapore memories of 40-50 years ago are still there)!

I put organic porridge oats, bran and wholemeal flour in the bottom. In went the worms and we kept it in the back bedroom with a piece of sacking over the top. When the temperature got cold I popped the ‘tank’ onto a heated cat mat. However, the sacking slipped and the worms made a mass break for freedom so they were banned from the house and took up residence in ‘my shed’.

I kept putting sliced spud on top of the ‘growing medium’ changing it when I remembered. I also placed a cut down egg tray on the top of the medium. As the beetles arrived I moved them to a smaller box, after feeding the worms to the birds there wasn’t a lot of worms left. Eventually there were no worms, only beetles slowly turning from light brown to black and they set about doing what they do naturally and I removed them when they had died of their exertions!

The next weeks I kept checking the medium and got quite depressed and concerned as I saw nothing, but one day I saw a movement and my hopes were raised until one day I disturbed the floury mix to find many hundreds of mini worms all wiggly-wiggly.

It is only recently that I sieved out the frass and changed the medium. This time I used more flour and bran so I can sieve the worms and not have oat flakes for the birds. I did nothing special as I have said. It may be a case of leaving well alone and letting nature take its course. I think they worms will go through one full generation and be fully grown worms just in time for the bad weather.

As a fairly new bird watcher due to an enforced retirement (not medical) it is something I’m enjoying. I hope you do not think that this 'reply' is in any way discursive. Best wishes to all, hope this helps. Cheers, Tony.