FINCHforum

I forget who said Grubco was a good place to get meal worms. But I have a question on how you store or keep your meal worms. I ordered 1000. they came in a cloth sack with wadded up newspaper in it. the little suckers are crawling everywhere. Do i cool them off to a sleeping state and transfer to a plastic bowl. I also ordered the fly larva and at least they came in a tub with sawdust or something in it. just trying to dig in a sac for meal worms will be a pain.

Have you tried transferring the mealworms from the sack into plastic tupperware? Then store the mealworms in the refrigerator. Offer a slice of potato or carrot on a weekly or biweekly basis. Keep the tupperware covered.

I used to dump them in a plastic container big enough to get the whole bag and paper in it. When you open it up and dump they fly everywhere not to mention sorting through the paper and getting them out of all the nooks and crannies of the paper. I really don't like when they come like that.
Be sure to give them carrot and let them sit for a while before you put them in the frig. When they are in the frig they don't eat and you want them to fill up with good things that will transfer to the birds. If you will have them for a while, every couple days you should take them out and feed them more too.
good luck

Thank you for the great info. I just put bag in fridge until I got word on what to do. I will empty the contents into a 5gal bucket and then transfer to a smaller butter type tub. The small tubs that come with the meal worms you buy at the store have holes in the lid. Is this nessacery. I will also feed the meal worms carrots also great idea. And do I need to place paper back in tub or just worms and carrot.

The tub will need to have small holes in the lid or if it's a deep tub no lid at all and there should be some type of bedding for them like bran meal or even the old fashioned oatmeal (not instant). They like to bury themselves and hide.

Is bran meal a cereal or an oat meal? I will get some today. Thank you. I also read that they like apples and banana peels.

Couldn't find a picture of the container for you but it looks like this I believe wheat bran is very similar and would also work well.

Bananas may be a bit too wet and would spoil too quickly I would think. Apples would be good but not just the skin. The food you put in there is for moisture for them to drink and for vitamins and minerals you would want to offer your birds that's why carrots are very good. If the worms eat garbage their nutrition is garbage, if they eat high protein packed with vitamin and mineral food that's what they will in turn offer your birds. I would stay away from things that are too wet.

When I get my order from Grubco (usually 20,000 at a time), I set a 10-quart or larger Rubbermaid tub on the tailgate of my truck (or on the ground if you don't have a truck). I very carefully open the bag and pull out the crumpled newspaper into the tub. Then I turn the bag inside out and get all the worms out of the bag. Then I take each piece of newspaper and very carefully and slowly open it up, holding it down in the tub, as mealworms will fly everywhere if you aren't careful. When all the worms are now in the tub, I transfer them into plastic storage bowls. The ones I use are the Rubbermaid take-alongs 5.2 cup size. These are deep enough that I don't need a lid, the worms can't crawl out. One advantage to having a lid on the bowl is that if you knock it over, you aren't going to have worms everywhere in your fridge, but you must poke some holes in the lid for ventilation. I put a slice of raw potato in each bowl and leave them out for the rest of the day. Once all the potato is gone, I will put the bowls in the refrigerator to slow the growth of the worms. I take them out at least once a week to feed them (carrot or potato), then return them to the refrigerator. They will keep for quite a long time this way. You can use either old-fashioned uncooked oatmeal or wheat bran for bedding for them.

I use an empty Lafeber's Finch Food tub filled half way with wheat germ (toasted) and some pieces of raw organic sweet potatoe. To cover the top, I cut out a piece of the bag they come in and fasten it over the top with a rubberband. They keep for months and months this way. They're easy to keep.

Thank you for all the great tips. I did refridgerate the mill worms which made it easy to transfer them from the bag. They all just fell from the bag and news paper. No picking or plucking needed. I now have them in a small plastic container with a carrot and will let them eat for 24hrs then I will return them to there winter wonderland. I can't wait to feed. I need to find a small glass container to place the worms in so they don't exscape when being served. Also I believe the mill worms will eat the fly larva so is it a good idea to mix the two in a feeding dish??