Living with Birds Live and Dried Mealworms

For many small birds there is no better food than mealworms. These are the larvae of the flour beetle and are clean, fat and juicy. They may look like maggots but are very different: maggots are invariably fed on carrion or waste meat, which means they may well be contaminated by disease, whereas our mealworms are reared on vegetable matter - just like the leaf-munching caterpillars the birds naturally eat in the wild. They are safe and suitable for adults and chicks alike. Chicks reared on them don't need water since the mealworms contain sufficient moisture.

Mealworms can be fed to the birds, directly on the ground or, better still, in a smooth-sided pot so that they can't crawl away. Alternatively our I Love Robins® bird feeders are ideal. Feed a small quantity at a time until your birds know where to find them. Avoid putting them out in wet weather unless they are covered since they will quickly drown. They can also be put in holes bored into tree trunks to attract birds like treecreepers and woodpeckers. And they are the ultimate way of making a garden robin hand-tame.