Mealworm Shortage?
Hey, I'm hearing from some people in Minnesota that they are having a tough time finding mealworms for bird feeding. Has anyone else had this problem? If so, please leave a comment in this blog post. You don't have to be a member, you can do it anonymously, but do include what state you are in.
Thanks!
Thanks!
posted by birdchick at 11:11 AM
59 Comments:
It is true. I tried to order mealworms for my shop last week and was told they were out for at least another month.
Even my mealworm source fron NC is out.
Yep, mealworm shortage in Maryland, too.
Your blog is fantastic, I'm enjoying your postings and will be back to read more. Great photos too. I'll be adding you to my favorites. Mary
There was a mealworm virus that wiped out two of the largest producers of mealworms in the country. The Wildlife Rehab Center hasn't had any in over a month - tough on the insectivores. It will take weeks to bring their stock back up - so enjoy the shortage. Grubs anyone?
You can make your own mealworms from scratch!
http://www.glidersanonymous.com/mealwormfarm.html
Supposedly you can even raise them in plain cornmeal...
While we have been able to get them at the Wild Birds Unlimited in Indianapolis, they did say the supply is running low due to a shortage. Geez, gas, rice, corn and now mealworms! What's next?!
check your (wheat) flour for starter mealworms - there are often a few in the bag, and they get noticeable when your flour isn't the freshest. So if you have a little bit kicking around in the back of your cupboard, check it, sift them out and breed them up...
goes for all your old grains & old boxes of cream of wheat. Old oatmeal, old cereals... anything not very processed can harbour them.
Some of that might be Indian mealmoth larvae, not the mealworm that grows into a beetle that is sold in bird stores, pet stores, and bait shops.
Yes, we are out of stock (I work at a Portland,OR wild bird store). My local supplier has not had them available. A customer told me that he was told by another retailer that there was a batch of bad bran flakes (or whatever the bedding is) and it killed them all?? Seems odd to me, but who knows.
Can't get them at our Birds Unlimited in Torrance, CA. The owner is growing his own.
I get mine from a lovely outfit in Oregon called SunshineMealworms.com
But, they have a new flashscreen that reads:
Our Apologies!
Due to a shortage of mealworms nationwide, we are not accepting new customers at this time. In addition, we will not have any mealworms for sale until the first week of July.
I don't know the supplier (I volunteer at a zoo), but we have been out for ages. We were told it was a virus as well, but we still have the large mealworms.
Sorry, that's coming from NYC
Hi,
I'm in Maryland and have been trying to find them - no luck anywhere - on line, B&M stores, nothing. I did find freeze dried ones which, in order for my bluebirds to accept them, I had to reconstitute with hot water. Yum, mealworm soup!
Yes, there's a mealworm shortage in Colorado too. Had to buy some crickets today for our animals.
I work at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Roseville Minnesota and there are no meal worms there. It has been at 4 weeks now. I also can not get any for my animals at the local pet stores. I am glad I stumbled onto your blog. I am looking forward to looking at it more. Sincerely, K~
I am in NJ . No mealworms for my hedgehog, but he loves superworms (small multilegged creatures, bigger than meal worms)from local pet store. I am told both of a virus or bad food did them in Maybe 3-4 months.
out of mealworms in Massachusetts too. both at independent stores and the big chains like Petsmart and Petco. my hedgehog's gonna be a sad guy for a little while. One place still has some giant ones, but that's it. No one seems to have any idea when they will be getting more.
We live in California and have not been able to get any. Pet Smart is out and says all their stores are. We had started growing our own but do not seem to have any new ones just the old ones going to beetles. It has been a month so it seems that we should have some of our own. They have plenty of food, bran, oatmeal and now even chick scratch, which one site said makes them grow faster. My daughter saw a show on Fear Factor that had a large vat of meal worms for one of the contestants. I laughingly told her that must have been where all the meal worms went to.
No mealies in Penna. either. I haven't been able to get them for almost two months...maybe more.
There is a national shortage and rehabbers cannot feed their orphans and injured animals. It takes 3 months to grow a medium-sized mealworm. The problem happened in mid-May, which means mid-August before mealworm supplies are back. It would be very helpful if people who are feeding healthy wild animals (bluebirds in particular) would hold off until the situation is remedied. Wild animals living outdoors know how to find food; orphans and injured animals in rehab don't have that option. Thanks for thinking of your local rehabbers!
i run a pet store in kansas city and we havent been able to get any for about a month now and i heard today it will be at least two more weeks. i have tried 5 different suppliers, still no luck
a great site to get mealworms for bird feed is
www.freewebs.com/mealworms
No mealworms in Spokane, WA either. Several plans/rumors for the store owners to begin breeding their own.
Wow...I didn't know anything about the shortage until I tried to order more today. Surfing for any web-store was unsuccessful. I'm feeding bluebirds. Fortunately, I had left a few go, and they have turned to beetles...but it will take a long time to see any results. I have a few left, but I'm playing stingy with my bb's. I throw them and they catch and go...NEVER imagined there could be a mealworm shortage..Gads. Good blog site, thanks!
In ohio here and mealworms are very scarce. I have been growing my own since Nov but I get very few large ones for my bluebirds. I have purchased crickets and waxworms locally to give to them. (freeze the crickets for about 10 min. so they can be found before they start hopping away!)
I live in NC and purchase my mealworms from WBU (15,000 per week). When I went today, there was a notice posted by the owner that there is a nationwide shortage and they were not accepting any new mealworm customers and may have to limit purchases in the future. For about three weeks, the mealworms have been very tiny, but the big ones were back today.
so obviously many of us will have to make do without standard mealworms for a while. i know of a supplier that sells "superworms", which are described as bigger, more active, more aggressive mealworms. the animals i am feeding (bats) may not eat these. i expect they will be too large and possibly too fast, and their bite may be painful. prior to browsing this blog i had heard about the use of cooled/slowed crickets from one other source, but i doubt that they will be eaten before hopping out of the dish. does anyone see any reason that their legs couldn't simply be pulled off so that they can't hop away? anyone have any other suggestions as to what an adequate substitute might be?
“Anon” mentioned a website called freewebs saying it’s a good place to get mealworms (when available). I suggest shopping around. The above site charges 11.50 for 500 mealworms; www.sunshinemealworms.com, where I get mine, charge $11.00 for 2,000 mealworms. Still, as someone pointed out, it looks like nobody will have any till nearly August.
I appreciate the idea of NOT buying them for healthy wild birds just now…save what’s available for the rehabbers!
I work at PETsMART and KS and we have been out for over a month. People find it hard to believe that there could be a mealworm shortage. People are getting very angry. and A lot of them are not willing to try waxworms or superworms as a substitute. Most reptiles and amphibians can eat the waxworms, the superworms are a bit large though.
Try the substitutes. Ask an associate what your animals can eat along with the mealworms. It is often not healthy to feed them just mealworms. They like variety.
no mealworms in metro Atlanta :( at first, the guy at petco just said "shortage" and now a woman told me there was a ban? i don't know if i believe THAT but this is bad news for my lizards :(
We went to several places looking for mealworms for our orphaned small footed bat with no luck. Finally we met with a wildlife rehabilitator on Tuesday 7/8 and he said that there is a nationwide shortage of mealworms
The rumor is a big southern-farm Georgia , I think - farm has closed.
I have been so pressured as my spoiled bird will not eat- but you try- phoneix worms or butter worms.
- the large worm.
but my Mr. Spoiled will not--even eat on his own- wax worms. i have to hand- feed as if it does not wiggle, he won't eat it.
try cat food- he ate it for a while, now no--but ask your VET first for cleareance.I am speaking about birds, not reptiles...s eating waxworms and some bread,and barely will eat apple bits.
try the butterworms- they are the mealworm of the large Chilean Moth-at $1.00 a worm, he did not eat because they were bigger-- better too than waxworms, more calcium--so I threw them to the wild birds, and they figured out to use their WINGS to "hold" the larger worm.
to the rehabbers--iwas wondering if many birds/reptiles died because of this...
Northern NJ reporting in - no mealworms for weeks and none expected for weeks was what I was told. I was informed there was a shortage - oil AND mealworms - hmmm, conspiracy?
We went this past weekend to get our bearded dragon some superworms to tide him over, but apparently there is a run on them as well by other like-minded folk...
I live near St Louis Missouri, and like everyone else has said - no mealworms here either. My box turtle is too small to eat the superworms. Does anybody have any suggestions?
To the St Louis Mo, turtle owner, the mealworms avail to me here in KS are too big for my 2 juvenile box turtles, so I had to get big and giant and take the heads off, as not to injure the turles insides and also if really big, cut them up with old scissors or a knife. The the other option is to squeeze the guts out, not pleasant but will work if you have hungry turtles :-) H
I am curious if any of you bird breeders that feed primarily mealworms are having any issues with low egg productivity, egg failures, or weak or deformed hatchlings this season?
Same issue in upstate NY. All pet stores/suppliers are stating at least the end of August before they see anymore. Superworms are an adequate substitute but some pet owners choose to crush the worm's head before feeding to avoid bites. Calcium suppliment should be used the same as you would with mealworms
In WV, eastern panhandle, and the petsotre I work for has been out for weeks, and every other petstore in the area. My hedgehog is kind of upset! But the superworms are still there, and waxworms. And the seven-elevven in the area has them available for bait! I don't know where they get them, but they are alive. They're also more expensive (About four dollars for 36) but for people who are getting desperate for live: Check out bait shops!
Box turtle owners: we feed our box turtles ground turkey. You can buy it in any supermarket and freeze it in meatball size portions, then thaw and watch them dig in. Ours come running every morning! Once a week I add some rat pellets to the chopped meat for variety. I was told today that mealworms would be out of stock for another 2 weeks, at least. Disappointed in NJ.
Box turtle owners: I posted earlier that I added rat pellets. That's not true - they are tortoise pellets. Sorry
Phoenix AZ out too!
Try this site:
www.nyworms.com/mealworms.htm
None in Tn either.
None to be found in Lakewood, WA. My fussy gecko won't touch superworms, they're too big. Crickets are too fast and he can't catch them. As much as I hate to, I might have to pull their jumping legs off so he can get them. Ugh. I hope this shortage is over with soon, 'cause this really sucks.
there are no meal morms in orlando ,fl and have not been any for about 2 months. even the super worms are running low and mr. ping the sugar glider is a picky eater.
I'm in NY and there hasn't been mealworms here either for about a month and a half. My Leopard Gecko is very picky and doesn't eat crickets or waxworms, so i'm very concerned about his health. I'm scared that by the time mealworms are back he'll be too sick to want to start eating them again. I'm crossing my fingers.
I just received my order fron "thenaturesway.com" [the Nature's Way"] 2000 worms for a first time customer ordered without problems. HOWEVER, although I ordered "medium", these are really SMALL mealworms. My cost for 2000 with shipping was $31.50. Insert in packing said their was going to be a price increase. Linda, in central Minnesota
It may be the ProFume being used on grains in food warehouses to control pests. It leaves high amounts of fluoride residue on the foods especially grains. Maybe it's not a virus. If you are growing mealworms, try giving them only organic food.
I'm worried about mine, I just cleaned and fed them before I found out about this - of course with new foods that may have been fumigated with the ProFume!
in wichita ks no mealworms either for couple months now. i have sugar gliders and they will eat wax worms but the fat content is not good for them and they need protein in larger doses. it's so strange to have a mealworm epidemic! i had no idea it was country wide wow.... and bummer.
I live in Colorado and no regualr mealworms here. My beardy is a little picky when it comes to his food and he's used to having them. I found some superworms at a local PetCo a few weeks ago which has held us out until now, but he doesn't seem to like them as well. I can't get him to eat more than a couple per feeding which is starting to make me worry. I'm thinking I'll probably have to switch to crickets. I hope the shortage gets resolved soon. In the mean time, would it be too much to ask for people to stop feeding mealworms to wild birds who can find their own food so that others can feed their pets? It's just a little unsettling to hear people on other forums talk about how upset they are because they can't find their usual 15,000 mealworms a week to feed their wild birds when I'm having trouble finding my beardy his usual 500 every 2-3 weeks.
No mealworms in Michigan eather!!
Our box turtle refused to eat any of the last batch of mealworms I bought about 6+ weeks ago. I thought something was wrong with her, but today I learned about the mealworm shortage. The (Michigan) pet store owner said that an insect growth regulator had been added to the supply of feed for mealworms, wiping out the stocks. I must have gotten worms that had had that feed but didn't die - but our turtle could smell whatever it was that was added, and wouldn't eat it.
We grow 2 million flies everyday in the summer and raise a little wasp that eats the fly pupa. We supply these to people who raise animals to control flies. We can also sell the fly maggots, pupae and adults to folks who want to feed animals. We sell 5K maggots for $30 plus shipping. http://www.rinconvitova.com/bees.htm
We are happy to help while there is a shortage of mealworms
still can't get mealworms from petstores for our hedgie in IL! luckily she likes waxworms too.
I have been buying medium-sized mealworms in bulk from Rainbow Mealworms in Compton, CA (SoCal)for over 10 years. Suddenly in late July they said they were not available and call back in a month. I'm still hearing that comment -- as late as Monday, Oct. 6. I've asked "Why" and they just say we don't have any.
--John, Sonora, CA
I work for a large internet retailer which sells feeder insects and our wholesalers have been out all summer and are still out. The tell us they have no idea when they will be able to ship them regularly again.
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