Mum, is this bread off?

[Two_Sheds]

So, this is my new project ~ a meal wormery.

It seemed like a good idea when I read about it on the RSPB website. Grow your own wildbird food

[Two_Sheds]

Sorry, the pics aren't very big/clear.
The mealworms are in a Quality Street tin in the boiler cupboard (they need to be very warm and moist). I got them online for a fiver.

I can just about deal with them at this stage, when most of them are under the bran bedding and not wriggling around.
The next stage is pupation, and then ... BEETLES! 250 x one inch long beetles! Under my stairs!


then the beetles lay eggs ... and so on. A constant supply of mealworms for the birdies.

[coomber]

.......

[FionaH]

Still less trouble than the toddler though

[Snadger]

I cut out the middle man and feed the bread straight to the chooks!

[sarraceniac]

Shut up kid and eat your bread.

[lynda66]

i did look into growing mealworms, till i saw the beetle bit ....... no chance .... so is there anything else like mealworms, that stay kinda mealwormish??

[Polly Fouracre]

My hens and my quail love mealworms as well as the robin. I shall have a go at this!

[BrideXIII]

less affected than i thought i would be, only because i remember having a fridge full of boxes of maggots for fishing.

remind me why i am a twice divorced woman? i mean i am open to maggots in the fridge for gods sake?

[lynda66]

remind me why i am a twice divorced woman? i mean i am open to maggots in the fridge for gods sake?

cos you cooked them for tea

[Flummery]

We had a meal-wormery to feed the bats when our lad was a licensed bat-handler. We had a number of injured bats to care for over a few months one summer and meal worms are a favourite. We kept them in a marge-tub with small air-holes and they fed on bran and some cut-up apple. Didn't matter if they grew to the beetle stage - the bats liked them too!
Problem is, after associating the smell with boxes full of wriggly worms, I can't stand bran-and-apple flavoured anything!

[Two_Sheds]

Oh Flum, thank you ~ a sensible person who has also raised meal worms.

I opened the tin today and I still freak out at the wriggling mass of bodies ... I have to leave them for 5 mins, to bury themselves, before I can get on with picking out the dead bits (they shed a lot of skins!)

[kirsty b]

less affected than i thought i would be, only because i remember having a fridge full of boxes of maggots for fishing.

remind me why i am a twice divorced woman? i mean i am open to maggots in the fridge for gods sake?

with a man and 2 of the stepsons into fishing I am quite used to finding maggots in the fridge and various horrible smelly sea-fishing baits in the freezer. Doesn't mean I have to like it though!!

[lynda66]

Oh Flum, thank you ~ a sensible person

are you saying the rest of us aren't sensible ???

[terrier]

Mealworms have been incorporated into tequila flavored novelty candies.

Really

Mealworm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You REALLY wanna keep these in your HOUSE TS? Maybe this is why I never took up fishing