Live Organic Mealworms

Mealworms are a classic, reliable, and highly popular feeder insect for reptiles, birds, and small mammals. We feed our worms a high calcium diet found to drastically improve the nutrition profile of mealworms for most common reptile species (see this study for details!). This means these mealworms compare much more favorably to the popular healthier Dubia roaches! Our mealworms are never sprayed with hormones or chemicals, and are fed a diet of wheat bran and locally sourced produce.

We guarantee our mealworms will arrive happy and healthy. Please ensure you are keeping track of your order arrival time. Please retrieve the package from your mailbox or porch ASAP if the weather is too hot or too cold. Our mealworms are shipped live, so they will easily bake in the hot sun or freeze in winter temps inside your mailbox if left for too long.

BENEFITS FOR REPTILES

• Highly Stimulating: Their constant wiggling movement is a powerful visual trigger that encourages a strong natural hunting response in reptiles.
• Enhanced Nutrition: Thanks to our specialized high-calcium diet, they offer an excellent balance of protein, fat, and essential minerals, closing the nutritional gap between standard mealworms and premium feeders.
• Clean and Odorless: Unlike crickets, mealworms are silent, cannot jump or escape easily, and produce virtually no odor when kept in a dry environment.
• Versatile Feeders: Because they come in various sizes and have an easily manageable exoskeleton, they are suitable for a wide variety of insectivores.

HOW TO STORE THEM

• To keep your mealworms strictly as feeders and halt their life cycle (preventing them from turning into pupae and beetles), you need to slow their metabolism down.
• Temperature: Unlike tropical species, standard mealworms do wonderfully in a typical kitchen refrigerator! Store them at roughly 45 F to 50 F.
• Bedding and Ventilation: Keep them in a shallow, well-ventilated plastic container. Provide an inch or two of dry substrate, like plain wheat bran or rolled oats, for them to burrow in and eat.
• Moisture and Maintenance: Once a week, take the container out of the fridge, let them warm up to room temperature, and place a few slices of carrot on top of the bedding for about 12 to 24 hours so they can hydrate. Remove any uneaten vegetables and put them back in the fridge. Never mist the container with water.

HOW TO SET UP A BREEDING COLONY

• If you want to start a self-sustaining colony, simply keep them warm rather than putting them in the fridge.
• Prepare the Enclosure: Use a plastic storage bin or glass terrarium with excellent ventilation.
• Add Substrate and Food: Pour 2 to 3 inches of wheat bran or rolled oats into the bottom to act as both bedding and their primary food.
• Provide Moisture: Place slices of carrots, potatoes, or apples directly on the substrate. Replace every few days before they spoil or mold.
• Dial In the Temperature: Keep the bin at normal room temperature or slightly warmer (70 F to 80 F).
• The Life Cycle: The mealworms will eat, shed their skin, and eventually transform into white, dormant pupae. After a few weeks, these pupae will emerge as black darkling beetles. The beetles will mate and lay hundreds of tiny eggs in the substrate, constantly replenishing your supply.

SHIPPING TIPS

• Please check your weather conditions prior to ordering to make sure inclement weather delays and extreme temperatures are avoided!
• We ship with USPS in the summer and UPS in the winter. If you live in Florida or on the West Coast, we will use USPS year-round (unless you purchase UPS 2nd Day Air or Next Day Air).
• In the summertime, we HIGHLY recommend doing Hold for Pickup at your nearest Post Office. Hold for Pickup means the Post Office will hold your order until you pick it up. Under normal circumstances, the Post Office will call you to let you know it is ready for you to pick up. This option requires no extra steps from you other than your permission and your phone number. Watch your tracking carefully in case the Post Office doesn't call you - sometimes they forget!
• Please understand that when your order leaves our facility and is taken in by the Postal Service or UPS, we no longer have control over its fate. Delays and shipping issues are very common these days, and there is not much we can do to move the package forward when that happens. We do have contacts at USPS, but they can really only give us insight as to where it might be. They cannot predict when it will arrive!
• We've found that most order death occurs in the last leg of the trip, from your local Post Office or UPS hub to your door. This is why Hold for Pickup is so important for hotter or colder temperatures (80+ degrees, or 45 degrees or less).
• Most farms require Hold for Pickup no matter what, or they won't honor a live guarantee. We try to be a bit more flexible than that, but if we see your weather is too hot or cold, please take our recommendation to Hold for Pickup! We promise it's for the best!
• We will do our best to reship orders that arrive dead, please let us know ASAP when this happens. While we don't love to see photos of dead bugs, we may ask for one so we can make adjustments on how we packaged them if needed.