Mini Mealworms

Mini mealworms, like regular mealworms and waxworms, are best fed using a live food feeder. These are built in a way that stops worms from wriggling away. 

These are built with a small tray to put the mini mealworms in, which comes with a lip. It is this lip that stops them from escaping from the tray. Our live mealworm feeders are covered, which stops the worms from getting wet. Mini mealworms, and all other live bird foods, should be kept dry once in your garden. They will not be able to survive if they are submerged. 

Live small mealworms can be stored in a breathable plastic container. As with regular mealworms, they must be kept at a certain temperature in order to keep their growth hormones dormant. This keeps them suspended in their larvae form. If they are not kept under these conditions, they will turn into darkling beetles. 

Store live mini mealworms in a cool, dry, dark place at temperatures between 8 and 10 degrees Celsius. Keeping mini mealworms at these temperatures is highly important, as it keeps them at the larval stage of their life cycle and stops them turning into a beetle. You should avoid storing them in a container where the mealworms are too deep: a shallow dish or container of around 1 to 1.5 inches is advised. Alternatively, a deep container that is wide enough to ensure the mealworms aren’t too deep is also possible.  

You can store mini mealworms for approximately 2 weeks before feeding them to birds, provided you keep them in the correct conditions. If you are storing them for any longer than this, it is advised that you feed them with mealworm food to ensure they survive.  

Keep mini mealworms in a sealed, breathable container in a cold, dark area -- see the above section for more details. 

When you are ready to put the meal worms into your garden, take them from the fridge/cold area and allow them to reach room temperature. 

It is important that when storing livefoods you keep them in the correct conditions. If you do not do this, they will continue with their life cycle (turning into a beetle or, in the case of a waxworm, a moth) or perish. 

All livefoods are an important addition to your garden if you want to attract wild birds. Increased urbanisation and climate change have meant many birds becoming red-listed over the last decade, and insect-feeding birds are the most vulnerable to this.

Mealworms help to encourage wild birds into your garden, especially soft-billed, ground-feeding birds like Robins, Blackbirds and Song  thrushes. During breeding and fledgling seasons, they are especially beneficial. This is because they have a high protein content, which helps to aid feather growth in young birds. They also have a high moisture content, which is also ideal for baby birds. Parent birds will often feed live worms and caterpillars to their nestlings, and this helps to hydrate them. This is vital for baby birds that are unable to venture from their nest yet, as they are unable to fly to a water source by themselves. Mini mealworms are especially useful, because small mealworms are easier for younger birds to eat and digest. 

To attract a variety of species into your garden year round, we recommend putting out a range of bird foods.

As well as livefood, you could also include: 

• Suet products, like suet pellets and fat balls (especially during the Winter months)
• Seed mixes and straight seeds
• De-husked seeds, like sunflower hearts chips
• Dried mealworms
• Peanuts

Mini-mealworms are especially beneficial during breeding systems, when birds feed them to their young. 

Birds that feed on mealworms include: 

• Blackbird
• Blackcap
• Blue tit
• Dunnock
• Great tit
• House sparrow
• Nuthatch
• Robin
• Starling
• Song thrush
• Wren