Disposing of mealworms

Tygerr

Avid Member
I have a huge oversupply of mealworms at the moment. I want to get rid of them, but I'd like to know what the best way to do that is?

I've thought of donating them to my local pet store, but they already have quite a large stock of mealworms - they might not want them.

The only other reptile keepers I know in the area keep snakes, and have no need for mealworms.

So do I just throw them out? I'm worried what the potential consequence of having hundreds (if not thousands) of mealworms finding a new home on the trash heap might be. I don't want to be the cause of some eco-disaster.
Do I need to kill them before I throw them out? If so, what's the best way to do that?
 
freeze them for something like 48 hours and then throw them away. That should get rid of any risk of environmental impaction.
 
I've seen mealworms comeback from a frozen state.

Instead I suggest:

Mealworm Cookies

Ingredients:
550 ml (1-1/4 cups?) all-purpose flour
5 ml (1 tsp.) baking soda
5 ml (1 tsp.) salt
250 ml (1 cup) softened butter
175 ml (3/4 cup) white sugar
125 ml (1/2 cup) crumbled dried mealworms
175 ml (3/4 cup) firmly packed brown sugar
5 ml (1 tsp.) vanilla
2 eggs
360 grams (1-1/2 cups) chocolate chips

Place the cleaned and prepared insects on a cookie sheet and dry in the oven for 1 -2 hours at 100¡C (200¡F). Preheat oven to 190¡C (375¡F). In a bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, cream butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Stir in eggs. Gradually add the flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and mealworms. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet, and bake 8- 10 minutes.

Or maybe your taste is more:

Mealworm Spaghetti

* 1/2 pound roasted yellow mealworms
* 4-1/4 cups water
* 1 tablespoon safflower oil
* 1 sprig marjoram
* 1 sprig thyme
* 2 bay leaves
* 1/4 onion, chopped
* 8 ounces dry spaghetti
* 6 to 8 tablespoons butter
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* Olive oil
* 3 to 4 tablespoons pine nuts, finely chopped
* 10 sprigs parsley, finely chopped
* 1/2 pound purple basil, finely chopped
* 1/2 pound ricotta cheese
* 1/4 cup whole pine nuts

Boil water; add safflower oil, salt, marjoram, thyme, bay leaves, and onion. Add spaghetti. Drain when done. Melt butter in saute pan. Add spaghetti. Salt and pepper to taste. Mix basil, parsley, ricotta, oil, and chopped pine nuts with the spaghetti. Heat but do not boil. Top with mealworms and whole pine nuts.

http://www.google.com/search?q=meal...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
 
Haha. Thanks Will, but I don't know if I'll be able to use those recipes just yet.
My girlfriend already thinks I'm weird for adding a spoon of [homemade] gutload into my cereal in the mornings - I can't imagine what she'd think if I started eating the cham's food too!
 
i have a friend that eats mealworms... live

I think she just does it for attention, but still- you should see the look on people's faces when she pops one in her mouth at the pet store.
 
Tygerr,

Do you have a zoo or animal park or aquarium that would take them? At least then they would get used.

-Brad
 
Birds love them!

feed them to the birds. If you put out bird feeders you can out the mealies right in with them or make a platform with a lip all around and place outside where birds can easily see them. Even after they turn into beetles they are edible. The birds will love you! I have done that with mealworms and superworms.
 
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