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Everything You Need To Know About Mealworms

websitebuilder@thryv.com — Sat, 11 Jun 2022 19:52:39 GMT

The first thing you need to know about mealworms is that they’re not actually worms. That’s right, just like peanuts aren’t nuts and tomatoes aren’t vegetables, they’re actually something else completely. Mealworms are a type of black beetle called Tenebrio Molitor (Darkling Beetle) in its larval stage that are commonly used in their live or dried state as feed for reptiles, birds and captive mammals. They are easy to breed and easy to store, so they’re popularity is expanding. Here’s everything you need to know about these amazing creatures.

Life Cycle of Mealworms

Tenebrio Molitor beetles, like all beetles, go through a total metamorphosis so the adult form has a completely different body structure than the larval state. The process begins with adults mating and the females laying from hundreds of eggs in a dark and moist location. It doesn’t take long before they hatch into the creamy colored larval organisms called mealworms that range in size from a half inch to one inch long. Next, they shed their outer exoskeleton, in a process known as molting, at least fourteen times before they turn into pupae. Depending on the ambient temperature, the pupa stage can last from six to three hundred days and then they emerge as adult beetles.

Mealworm Anatomy

Mealworms have a skeleton, legs, a thorax, a long abdomen that’s made up of nine segments, the last one is called “spine.” Mealworms use all that space in their abdomen to store fat, which they will need to support their metamorphosis into an adult beetle. This is why they are so high in fat, averaging about 30%. They have an exoskeleton, which is a skeleton that’s outside the body, instead of one that’s inside the body like worms. Females can lay as many as 500 eggs and prefer to deposit them in a place of complete darkness. Mealworm eggs are tiny whitish specs that can barely be seen with the naked eye.

Mealworm Habitat

Mealworms are originally from Africa, and most likely migrated to the rest of the world in the grains transported on ships. In the wild, their diet consists of grass, sticks, leaf litter, grains, feces, new plant growth, insects and animals. Mealworms are decomposers that serve the important function in our ecosystem of breaking down organic material and turning them into vital soil nutrients. They are an main source of food for wild birds, reptiles, spiders and rodents. Mealworms got their name from their love of stored grains, finding themselves quite at home in mills, warehouses, grocery stores and farm storage bins. In fact, they’ve evolved to prefer these man made habitats to the wild where they face predators. Humans that want to keep mealworms in their homes as pets or to feed pets, can place them in about three inches of wheat bran or oatmeal with a diet of potatoes and apples providing hydration.

Mealworms Make Great Pets For Kids

Mealworms make great pets for kids that are interested in science because they offer an excellent opportunity to observe four life cycle stages: adult, pupa, larvae and egg. It generally takes mealworms only about two to three months to go through all the stages, offering the perfect opportunity for children to observe metamorphosis. They can safely be handled at all stages, except for the egg stage where they can be easily crushed. The idea may be repugnant to some adults and older kids, but young children usually love to hold a fist full of jiggly mealworms in their hands. Best of all, you never have to walk your pet mealworms in the rain or right before you go to sleep. There are many safe experiments that kids can perform with their mealworm pets such as increasing the heat and humidity in the enclosure to get the eggs to hatch faster and seeing what type of diet gets them to grow the largest.

Mealworms are Ideal Feeder Insects

Mealworms provide proper nutrition for a wide variety of pets and agricultural animals. They are the only type of feeder insect that can be the exclusive diet for leopard geckos and some other types of reptiles. They can also be used as treats for backyard chickens, parrots and other pet birds, and as a nutritional supplement at poultry farms. They can be eaten by all types of mammals, including dogs and cats, providing an enjoyable crunch and an abundance of protein and fat. Mealworms are easy to cultivate and they’re also easy to store since their lifecycle can be slowed down by placing them in the fridge. This is because they have what scientists called “antifreeze proteins” that allow them to survive very cold temperatures, coming back to life after being slowly warmed at room temperature. Never use artificial heat sources to warm mealworms that have been in the fridge, including placing them in the sun in front of a window that magnifies the sun’s rays.

Mealworms are on the Menu

The growth of eating trends can be measured by looking at Google Trends results. For example, veganism first showed up regularly in 2004 and is now a more popular search term than “beef” or “meat.” In 2022, five percent of Americans are describing themselves as vegans. A Google Trends search for mealworms shows a steady increase in popularity for the term beginning around 2009 and a sharp increase around 2019. Most of the related terms are for feeding reptiles, chickens and frogs, but the inquiries for mealwormas as a gourmet food for humans are also going up since the government in England declared them safe for humans to eat. They are being touted as an ideal animal protein because they are high in protein and fiber, while being more environmentally friendly than other sources of animal protein. Dried mealworms can be eaten as crunchy snacks or they can be ground and made into pasta, cupcakes, smoothies and burgers. Young people are always looking for ways to set themselves apart, so don’t be surprised if your kids come home tonight demanding to eat mealworms for dinner.

Gecko Food - Live Mealworms

websitebuilder@thryv.com — Sat, 11 Jun 2022 19:29:10 GMT

You’ve brought home your adorable new geckos, given them names and set up a gorgeous habitat for their comfort and enjoyment. Now, you’re trying to figure out the best way to feed them and keep them healthy. Leopard geckos can eat crickets, roaches, superworms, waxworms, CalciWorms® and mealworms, so it’s not so simple to decide what to feed your new pets. Let’s explore the different pro’s and con’s on these options while keeping in mind that it’s always a good idea to supplement their diet with vitamins and minerals because deficiencies can be life-threatening.

The Cricket Diet

Leopard geckos can survive on an all-cricket diet, but there are more drawbacks than advantages to this plan. Crickets are easy to find at most pet stores, active enough to increase your pet’s feeding response, easy to digest and highly nutritional. That’s why so many pet stores and breeders recommend feeding your leopard geckos crickets when you bring them home for the first time. Once you try feeding your pets crickets, the downsides become quite evident. If you have a keen sense of smell, the first thing you’ll notice is the terrible odor that infuses your surroundings, even when you only buy small quantities of these feeder insects. Sensitive ears will notice the loud chirping, making crickets a bad choice for habitats that are located in bedrooms. They’re also great escape artists and hiders, so they can easily lodge themselves in other places in your home and start chirping away. Leopard geckos also have a bit of a love-hate relationship with these insects, who annoy them by nibbling on their tails and toes, and they are also more likely to harbor disease than other types of feeder insects. If that’s not enough to warn you off, the difficulty you’ll have keeping them alive and healthy to feed your pets might be the last straw.

The Dubia Roach Approach

Feeding your leopard geckos dubia roaches has many advantages over crickets. They aren’t able to jump, so you don’t have to worry about them escaping from their enclosure and infesting your home. Another big plus is that they are odorless, so they can be kept in a bedroom, office or other setting that’s shared with humans. They do require some work to make them properly nutritious for your pets. For starters, dubia roaches must be fed a diet of fresh veggies, fruits and whole grain cereals in order to make them high enough in proteins for your leopard gecko’s needs. They also must be gut loaded with nutritious powdered food at least twelve hours before you feed them to your leopard geckos. This is done by placing the roaches in a container with the powder and a potato to provide hydration.

Leopard Geckos Love Superworms

Superworms are a tasty treat that leopard geckos love because they’re very high in fat, making them super delicious. The problem is that if they’re fed to leopard geckos on a regular basis they can cause crippling obesity, so moderation is key. As a rule of thumb, it’s best to only feed superworms to leopard geckos once in a while and never more than once a week. Superworms are much larger than other leopard geckos feeder options, so they’re best suited as treats for adults. Smaller superworms can be fed to juvenile leopard geckos, but close supervision is recommended to ensure the safety of your pet because these worms are able to fight back and might be able to injure younger geckos. Superworms are a great source of phosphorus, an important nutrient for geckos, but large quantities are not recommended because they can cause metabolic bone disease. It’s also a good idea to sprinkle superworms with calcium to mitigate the potential for metabolic bone disease. You don’t have to gut load superworms before giving them to your pets as treats, but feeding them oats, carrots or sweet potatoes improves their nutritional value.

Waxworms and CalciWorms®

Waxworms and CalciWorms® are not intended for feeding leopard geckos on a regular basis. They’re supplements that are meant to enhance your pet’s diet that should be used in moderation. Waxworms are helpful when your gecko is losing weight because geckos love these high fat treats and will sometimes eat them even if they are refusing all other food. The reason they must be used in moderation is that geckos can get used to them and refuse other food, causing obesity. CalciWorms®, a trademarked name for black soldier fly larvae, has a naturally high calcium level that can reduce your dependency on gut loading and dusting other types of leopard gecko food with calcium. That said, CalciWorms® should not be used as the sole diet for your pets because they lack the full range of vitamins and minerals that are needed for proper leopard gecko nutrition.

Mealworms are the Sweet Spot

There’s no harm in offering leopard geckos some variety in their diet, but mealworms are one of the few foods that can be an exclusive source of nutrition. The advantages of feeding leopard geckos are numerous and include:

They are a low activity species, making them easy for your gecko to hunt;
Mealworms can’t climb up walls and escape from enclosures;
Mealworms can be kept fresh in a refrigerator for weeks where they will become inactive and require no food or water;
They are not too high in fat;
They can be gut loaded to add calcium;
They don’t make any noise; and
They don’t have any bad odor.

Breeders and pet shops often recommend feeding crickets when your leopard geckos are young, but as they grow up you can avoid the noise, smell and other disadvantages of crickets by feeding them mealworms instead. Mealworms are very easy to feed because they can simply be placed in a shallow feeding dish where your leopard gecko can eat them whenever they want. Mealworms can be stored in the fridge, but it’s important to take them out at least 24 hours before feeding them to your pet so that they become active. Once they’re moving around, provide carrots and apples for the mealworms to eat, and don’t forget to dust them with vitamin powder before feeding them to your leopard geckos. When you follow these instructions, you can feel confident feeding a mealworm exclusive diet because most leopard geckos with longevity records were fed nothing other than mealworms.

Mealworms are Nutritious - Bon Appetite

websitebuilder@thryv.com — Sat, 11 Jun 2022 19:17:55 GMT

Mealworms are not actually worms at all, they’re the larvae of flour beetles that are plentiful throughout the World. They are considered pests when they infest grains and areas where garbage is not properly disposed of, but they also have many useful applications including providing excellent nutrition to pet reptiles, chickens and even humans. They prefer to live in high density closed spaces that are dark, slightly humid and warm. Mealworms usually live about 4 - 6 weeks before becoming pupae and then adult beetles. They can be stored live for long periods of time in the fridge or for even longer in freeze dried form, making them practical as well as nutritious.

Mealworms are the Perfect Reptile Food

Mealworms are the perfect food for a wide range of reptilian pets including bearded dragons, crested geckos, veiled chameleons, blue-tongue skinks, green basilisks and leopard geckos. There are many other options for feeding pet reptiles such as crickets, wax worms, superworms, grasshoppers and hornworms, but none of these feeder insects has as perfect a nutritional profile for reptiles. Mealworms are an excellent source of protein and contain just the right amount of fat to assist with the absorption of vitamins and the maintenance of body temperature. These are easy to feed because they are slow moving, aren’t strong enough to injure reptiles, even juveniles, and can be stored in the fridge for months in a dormant state. Mealworms are the only food source that can be fed exclusively to leopard geckos and some other types of lizards.

Mealworms are Mouth Watering Morsels for Birds

Over eight percent of birds eat insects as a part of their diet, making mealworms a great way to attract birds to your yard. Unlike most reptiles, birds are happy to eat freeze dried mealworms as well as live ones. They provide an excellent balance of protein, fat and fiber, making them nutritious additions to the diet of wild and pet birds. Adding mealworms to feeders is also a great way to attract species that aren’t so interested in seeds, such as cardinals, nuthatches, chickadees, thrushes, titmice, wrens and kinglets. To increase the nutritional profile of live mealworms, feed them some apples, loose bran or oatmeal one or two days before feeding them to birds. Live mealworms should be placed in a rimmed dish or on a platform feeder so they don’t get away before the birds can get to them. Backyard chicken coop farmers are discovering how appealing their flocks find dried mealworms. That’s great to know because they are packed with the type of protein that helps your chickens' plumage stay lustrous and promotes egg laying. There have been accounts of how adding mealworms to a chicken’s diet improves the size and flavor of their eggs. Mealworms are especially helpful during molting season when it’s essential to boost your girls’ protein intake. They are also a great addition to the diets of a wide range of pet birds, including parrots.

A Great Treat for Pet Fish

There are many varieties of aquarium fish that will thrive on a diet rich in mealworms. Due to the risk of parasites or bacteria in live mealworms, it’s best to only feed your fish dried mealworms. Goldfish love mealworms, but they’re omnivorous, so you can’t feed them mealworms exclusively. Pond fish such as Koi and large goldfish can eat either live or fried mealworms and gobble them up like there’s no tomorrow. They can be a bit difficult to digest due to their hard shell, so feeding mealworms to fish should be done in moderation.

Mealworms for Farming

Farmers are discovering that cultivating mealworms for animal feed is an economical alternative to importing soya for this purpose. This is because they are easy to cultivate and pack more protein than steak. They’re also rich in amino acids, fats, vitamins and minerals making them an excellent source of feed for poultry and aquaculture. Mealworms thrive on organic food waste and take up much less space then livestock, making of them a very eco friendly source of nutrition. Research is now being conducted to increase the usefulness of mealworms to agriculture by customizing the nutritional profile of mealworms for specific purposes. For example, producing low fat mealworms for aquaculture and high fat mealworms to feed poultry.

Should Humans Eat Mealworms?

Eating mealworms has become increasingly popular among foodies, heralded for their nutty taste and as an eco-friendly protein source. This led the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to investigate the safety of human consumption of dried yellow mealworms in 2015. EFSA released its report in 2021 with the conclusion that they are safe for human consumption. Eating insects is still difficult to sell to Americans and Europeans, but has a long history in other cultures. For example, in Mexico it’s common to find such delicacies as chocolate covered locusts and candied worms. The Brazilian town of Silveiras is known for collecting ants and either frying them or dipping them in chocolate. In Ghana, insects make up more than fifty percent of the protein in the diet in rural areas, providing crucial fats and proteins when other sources are not available. In Thailand, grasshoppers, crickets and worms are considered great snacks, eaten while sipping tea. In the Netherlands, progressive eco-conscious citizens are trying to bring the culture of eating bugs to their country by promoting products such as chocolate infused with ground mealworms. The Netherlands restaurant Bugalicious has crickets, grasshoppers, buffalo worms and mealworms on the menu. Gastrobug, a website about eating bugs, publishes a list of restaurants throughout the world that have some type of insect on the menu. The lion’s share of American restaurants with insects on their menus are in California, with San Francisco’s La Oaxaquena receiving accolades for their cricket tacos. For grasshopper sushi, a trip to Portland Oregon’s Sushi Mazi might be in order and mealworm connoisseurs will feel right at home at BensBugs restaurant in Belgium.

The Future for Mealworms

It’s no secret that livestock is destroying our planet and that eating animals that can smile, laugh and cry is falling out of favor. The large amounts of land that are needed for growing protein rich vegetables such as soybeans is also taking its toll on the environment. That’s why we’re likely to see an increase in the use of mealworms not just for feeding reptiles and birds, but as a protein source for humans throughout the world.