Mealworms

Standard and Mini Mealworms are the larval stage of the Tenibro Molitor beetle, commonly known as the flour beetle, as its name suggests this native creature usually lives in stored grains.

Mealworms are an excellent feed, being high in protein, for domestic chickens, aviary birds, wild birds and some lizards, they are particularly good during the winter and nesting periods. It is not advisable to feed to small or juvenile lizards.

Standard and Mini Mealworms are easy to keep being clean and odourless, they are best kept in a cool, dry garage or utility room.


Most mealworms supplied in the UK are imported from Holland, during their stay with the wholesale distributers, they are rarely fed, many are sent out pretubbed on behalf of the retailer. At Worms Direct we buy them loose and in bulk then we undertake a feeding regime before reselling, this involves feeding the mealworms a balanced and nutritional diet, including fruit and vegetables! not only is this beneficial to the mealworms but ensures they are in the best of nutritional condition when they are used for feeding birds, amphibians and reptiles etc.
Most amphibian and reptile keepers are aware of the benefits of this feeding regime, the same applies to birds whether wild or aviary.

Included in our price is enough food to keep your mealworms fit and healthy for as long as you should need, this and the mealworms are sent in a strong, ventilated plastic tub for your convenience.


As said before, the mealworms will arrive with enough food for at least a week and probably much longer but if you need to keep them long term then they will need extra feed and a source of moisture. The source of moisture should be added on arrival and should be a small piece of Banana skin about a couple of inches long or segment of apple or potato, this should be put into the container and the lid left off make sure anything added does not give the mealworms a "bridge" to the top edge or they will use it and be gone! This source of moisture should be removed (if there is any left) and replaced every couple of days, do not allow it to go mouldy and contaminate the dry food matter.
As the mealworms feed the original food will become very fine and sand-like it should be sieved off and replaced with new food, this can be bran, porridge oats or similar dried cereal. The container should be kept in a cool place but not a refrigerator.


We are often asked if we supply dried mealworms, sorry but we don't, there are very good reasons for this, despite all the claims made about being as nutritionally equal to live mealworms, they are not, also a very important factor is the moisture content, live Mealworms do not have high levels of moisture compared to say earthorms (80%) when they are dried they have no moisture at all and when fed by the parent birds to chicks can actually cause de-hydration as the dried mealworms absorb the moisture from the chick, this is the opinion of zoo's that specialise in bird care.

Orders are sent by 1st class post.