"Shock frosted" mealworms

[Ursula]

That's not a bad idea!

I was surprized to find a live one after putting them a half hour in the freezer. Now I put them in the freezer the night before I serve them in the morning, just to make sure.

[cindy]

I think frozen is the thing for me...the one that was flung just missed my coffe by a few inches!!!!!

[jimlas43]

Geat discussion guys!

I just started buying mini mealworms and was a little concerned about them not dying when my birds would eat them. the Shafttails just seemed to pick them up and fling most of them, only eating a few.
That cracked me up about the Shaft flinging one your way and almost going into your coffee

Anyway, I like the idea of freezing them. I thought they just died if they got out of the dish. I am naive when it comes to live food and trying to learn as much as I can with two pairs of Cordons coming.
Thanks!
Wendy

[Ursula]

I thought they just died if they got out of the dish.

No, they won't! They are tough survivors...

I guess it also depends on where they fall to when they get flung about. If you have a bird room with a concrete floor or something that's clean from all food etc I think they will eventually shrivel up and die. But I have aspen shavings and in them, feasting on fallen seeds I assume, they thrived.

By the way: When you freeze the worms make sure to freeze them at least an hour or so. When I was feeding mini crickets, I'd put them in the freezer for 5-10 minutes and they were dead. I saw mealworms come back to live after freezing them at least 20 minutes!

I freeze them usually for an hour now. I found that it I am freezing them overnight they don't like them quite as much as when I only freeze them for an hour... Maybe they get too hard?? Anyway, now the first thing after getting up in the morning is a walk to the fridge and putting some of the worms in a dish in the freezer. Before I leave the house for work they go into the aviary.

Another tip for mini-mealworms: If you keep them in oatbran for storage and wonder how to get them out of there before feeding them to the birds, I use one of these sifters that reptile-keepers use for sifting the reptile sand. I got it at a petstore and it works great to sift the worms out of the bran.

[cindy]

Ursula...another trick is to grind the bran flakes to a powder or put them in whole wheat flour and use a fine mesh sifter. The powder slips through and the worms stay.