Dried Mealworm

Hello all,

I'm wondering if anyone has used dried mealworm as bait, and whether it is as effective as live mealworm.

At the moment i'm working on a GSW nest site, and although the adult birds are taking the usual suet/nut/peanut butter type baits, i suspect they will be looking for more appropriate food, once the young have hatched.

The last time i photographed these birds at the nest, i had no need to bait, as i was able to photograph near the nest-hole entrance, but as this nest hole is at a difficult/ awkward height, i am needing to bait a nearby area.

Apart from the mealworm question, has anyone found that these birds will continue to take suet-type baits etc, once the young have hatched.

Thanks for any help!

Alan

Hi Alan,

Were probably gonna start a debate on the ethics of feeding live food but what the heck , try live Wax moth grubs , their about 3 times the size of a mealworm and a lot more juicy should help give the young un's a good start in life , personally I wouldn't feed dried mealworms to newly hatched birds.

Hope this helps

Andy...

I've been trying dried mealworms on my garden birds without much success. The ground feeding birds will take them whilst foraging but that's about it. I definitely wouldn't use them in the breeding season just in case some bird did decide to feed them to its chicks, which would then be at risk from dehydration.



Paul

As you say the ethics of whether or not to feed nesting birds could be a " can of worms " !!

I have never had any luck at all wth dried mealworms. And they are very expensive anyway.
Cheers JohnR

Hi Alan,

I have varying degrees of success with dried mealworm's. I find the strong scent in the autumn and winter works best. During breeding season I use real worms from an established wormary I have in my Garden it can churn out enough for me during the breeding season and into the summer (it takes a year or two too really establish one! So unfortunately not much use for you this year). Dehydration is a problem during breeding season for younglings so I seize using them.

Dried mealworm should be soaked to rehydrate them before use... however I don't find they as good as the live ones at pulling the birds in.

Thanks all,

At the moment i am baiting an old rotting storm-felled tree, a few yards from the nesting tree, and hopefully the adults will continue to seach this old tree for natural food/insects etc once the young have hatched, and my suet baiting has ceased.

My thought on dried mealworm was that it would be easier to stuff natural cavities with them, compared to drilling suitable holes that would prevent live mealworms from crawling out of.

However, as it appears the dried version may cause harm to the chicks, i shall not take that route.

No dought { if i put in enough hours} i shall get my reward without further baiting, as there is clear signs that they do regulary search this old tree, judging by the amount of pecked branches.

I may just resort to sugar-water, to attract ants and other creepy crawly's.

Thanks all

Hi Alan
A trick I use for my GSW in the garden to solve the problem of live mealworms from crawling out of the hole.

Once the bird is used to feeding from a hole drilled in a log ie filled with suet etc.
fill the empty hole with suet then simply put a cork in the end, the Woodpecker quickly makes short work of bashing out the cork, + the mealworms can't escape and no other birds can work out how to remove the cork to steal them.

you may even witness a comical sight which shows the intelligence of the bird.
If the GSW comes and the hole has not been refilled with mealworms the bird will pick up the cork from the ground and place it in the hole itself ! then bash it out expecting to find something there. They soon learn to associate the cork with food.

Agree with Nigel, I always pre soak them and they work fine. I have also used plain maggots from the local fishing tackle shop.

Regards

Thanks Gary,

Fascinating idea, and one i shall keep in mind for next year {thanks for the tip}.

May is a frantic month for me, as there is so much to do, and so little time.

I dought if i can spare too much time on the woody's, as i'm concentrating on nesting linnets, and possibly curlew, which usually nest in the field adjoining my house {which will be very time consuming}.

Would be nice for me to grab some digital woody's though, so i can replace my old film shots of these birds {which are showing signs of deterioration}.

Thanks again!!

Alan

Thanks for the pre-soak advice Nigel/Colin,

The thought of maggots did cross my mind {as i have an angling shop nearby}, although was unsure how tempting they would be for the woody's..............along with the 'captive' problem of live bait, which Gary has solved for me.

Useful stuff........thanks all

Alan

I poor boiling hot water on to dried mealworms and leave them to soak for about 5mins.
Once the birds have got used to them just watch them go.
A plastic beaker full poored onto a feeder tray goes in secs flat.
Cant see them doing harm to young birds provideing they are soaked.

Major.