Meal worm sources?

I ordered my first meal worms online, but was sent a package of fruit flies by "mistake", and the company says their supplier has no more meal worms. They are refunding my money, but does anyone have a dependable online supplier of bluebird food worms? Will they eat other worms? I know they hunt plenty of bugs, but they are used to me coming out and feeding them twice a day - and there are 4 hungry mouths to feed.

Hi bookworm, Heres a list of suppliers from the Sialis site.

http://sialis.org/bluebirdstore.htm#mealworms

Pelle

Thanks so much Pelle. Off to shop for worms :)

Bookworm... I've been happy for the most part with Sunshine Mealworms.... although the last two batches, the worms turned "black" and died faster than previous shipments. I think the weather turning warmer might be the cause. They've made it right, though, only charging me shipping and sending me replacement worms no charge.
If anyone has someone they have 100 percent confidence in, I'd be glad to try. Pricewise, though, from the research I've done, Sunshine wins hands down.

Thanks! I called most of the suppliers listed on Sialis and they aren't shipping to new customers for a couple of weeks. Sunshine included - they were very nice, though! I'll call them back in a couple of weeks.

Hope my happy parents will find a wealth of bugs. I have some worms left, and I guess I'll start rationing them. There's a Wild Birds Unlimited store that's a fair drive away, but I may just go. I hate it that they started to depend on the worms, and now there's a shortage. Wonder what happened?

Perhaps you should try growing your own worms. You could document the entire proceedure and file an article. Perhaps all the bluebird feeders here could then learn to grow their own worms too and report their success. I don't think I would try it in a house as the moths could be a mess if they escaped. LOL

Frank:

meal worms are not worms at all, they are beetle larvae.. If they escape you get black beetles.

yuk.... I think I'll pass. I'll go back to Wild Birds Unl and pay the premium price plus the gas and my time...I called and they had them. Papa is now taking 2 and 3 at a time like in Dave's photos!

The rep from the company said there are none at other online suppliers, but that production should pick up in a few weeks.

I have have been satisfied with Grubco.
http://grubco.com/
I order the medium size mealworms. So far, prices have always included shipping. And since they accept credit cards, they will ship asap, though usually at the first of the week. Too, I usually order 20,000 at a time. I keep them in a plastic, under-the-bed-type box from the dollar store with wheat bran. But you do not want to order once the weather gets hot! The mealworms cook and turn black in transit. yuck. And there is no refund.

For two years, I have tried raising my own. The worms turn to larva and then to beetles just fine. But no matter how many beetles I have, I never have enough mealworms produced to fit the needs of my birds. so, now I just feed them the larva (pupa?), beetles, and all.........

Good luck!

Later: well, oops! I just checked the Grubco site and they recommend calling to order since supplies are low.


This message was edited May 26, 2008 9:01 PM

Mima56 - great info - especially about the challenges of raising your own mealworms. I kind of thought it was more of a challenge than I'm up for right now. I'm impressed with your efforts. Wow! 20,000 meal worms? You must feed a lot of birds!

I did get some more from Wild Birds store, but they say they are very low, too. I've been rationing, and my papa bluebird flies down to the bowl after I've put 40 or so in there and looks in it, then at me like... Is that all you can do? I've got hungry babies!

I know that 20,000 mealworms sounds like a lot, but I don't want to order every 3-4 weeks. (We feed a lot in the winter, too.) I put mealworms out first thing in the morning (those babies have to be starving!) and again in the early evening (let's get those tummies full before bedtime!). Too, we have chickadees, nuthatches, and titmice who eat them. The cardinals and woodpeckers would clean me out if it weren't for those cage-type feeders!

Awesome Mima! So far, only the bluebirds have discovered the bowl I put out for them. I also put them out first thing in the morning and in the evening - they are being rationed right now!

Mrs. Ed - my papa is also taking a mouthful on each trip. It's so fun to see in person what Dave's been showing us on his threads. They eat a few themselves and take all the rest into the box. What good parents they are.

I get my mealworms from sunshine so far this month 15,000. I keep them in our little ice box.

The caroline wrens get most of them but mockers, cardinals and titmouse get their share. Both feeders are on my carport. One is only 6 feet from where I now sit.
Those little wrens can put away 9 at a sitting and carry at least that many. They are on there 3rd brood. The last one was a foot from the near worm feeder.

All the places I've called aren't accepting new customers until the supplies increase. I bought last week at Wild Birds and the brand they sold was Sunshine. (only 500 in a container for $10. - ouch) But big, juicy ones, though! How fun to have a wren nest so close by.

FYI, I also belong to a Sugar Glider message board and we all order mealies for our gliders. This was posted recently about Grubco:

"I am so irritated right now. I placed an order yesterday with Grubco for 1,000 medium mealies for a cost of $6.50. Shipping was presented on the shipping and payment screen for $6.20, giving a total cost of $12.70. The total remained the same on the order review screen and I hit submit. This morning I log on to my checking account and see I've been charged $29.27 by Grubco!!! So I figure it was an error and emailed them. They responded saying because I was in zone 7 the shipping was more, and my order could not be canceled! So I responded that it would be a great benefit to ALL of their customers to put that information on the TOTAL CHECKOUT REVIEW SCREEN!!! I should not have to read print outside that page to know I'm being charged almost tripple for my total order. What's the point of that page, then, if it's not even accurate of the total??? Upon going back to the site to put in a "mock" order, I see that it has a note near the shipping charges that says it excludes zones 5-8. Often you see something like this and it usually means a rural area, or Hawaii or Alaska. Appearantly Salt Lake City, UT is a hard to reach area or something because it looks like I'm stuck with the charges! It makes me especially mad because for one, I volunteered to take my friend out to dinner last night which I wouldn't have done had I known I was charged $30 for gourmet gold producing mealies. Plus, I have two suggies and only one eats worms. If I'd have known I was to be charged $30 I would have gone and gotten a 100 count thing at the pet store for like $5-6. Those last me long enough and there's stores all over. "

I used to use Grubco exclusively because they were very charitable towards glider owners after Hurricane Katrina, sending free mealies to glider rescuers. But with this report, I'm looking for another source.

The person this happened to is of course going to dispute the charges with her credit card company. Her receipt even says the charge was $12.70!

Well thats not a good way to do business. I hope she faxes that receipt to her credit card company.

I tried to order a second batch of mealworms from Sunshine in May and they weren't taking any orders at all at that time. I can't believe there would be a mealworm shortage-very weird!

My bluebirds have long flown the nest, so I won't be needing anymore until next spring. The only place I could find them was at the Wild Birds Unlimited Store - they always had them, but a very pricey solution. The last container I bought was not even finished by mom/dad or the baby blues. I think we had a shrike hanging close to their tree, and they fled elsewhere for safety. I've tried to lure them back, but they're onto nature's bounty of bugs, now.

Hoping next year there won't be such a shortage!

Grubco can be reviewed here on our Products and Services area if they don't straighten that out. Info like that would help us all choose a supplier next year.