How to Ship Mealworms

Mealworms are the grub of the darkling beetle and are commonly used by buyers as supplemental nutrition for wild or pet birds. Mealworms are high in protein and potassium and can be easily mixed with bird feed or offered to birds on their own. If you intend to ship mealworms, the process must be done carefully to ensure that the mealworms arrive at their destination alive and in good condition. If shipped improperly, mealworms have a chance of entering the pupae stage of their life cycle prior to arriving at the buyer's home. This will result in fewer usable mealworms and an unhappy customer.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Mealworms
• Plastic or burlap container
• Newspaper
• Instruction sheet
• Bran flakes

1. Count out the number of mealworms to be shipped. This is most easily done by calculating the mealworms' weight. If you know ahead of time how much a given number of mealworms weighs, you can use this information to calculate the approximate number of mealworms in each batch you ship.

2. Pack the mealworms into a light plastic container with holes cut into the lid or a small burlap bag. It is important to use breathable packaging so that the mealworms are able to get enough oxygen to survive the trip.

3. Use crumpled up newspaper as packing material for your worms. Newspaper will not hurt the mealworms and, because it is light, it will cut down on the shipping costs.

4. Add a small handful of bran flakes to the packing material. The bran flakes serve as food for the mealworms during the trip. You may also want to include a few additional grubs as some will inevitably die during shipping and you want the recipient to receive the full number of live mealworms that he purchased.

5. Include an instruction sheet informing the customer to feed the mealworms using bran flakes or oatmeal and to include fresh vegetables in the mealworms' container to provide them with moisture. Also inform the customer that storing her mealworms in the refrigerator will ensure that they do not begin to morph into pupae before she has an opportunity to use them. Mealworms will last around two weeks if they are properly refrigerated.

6. Ship the mealworms using overnight or 2-day air mail. The quicker the mealworms arrive at their destination, the higher chance they have of survival.

7. Schedule mealworm shipping for early in the week. This ensures that your mealworms arrive on schedule and are not held in a warehouse over the weekend where they could easily die or enter the next stage of their life cycle.

References

• Nature's Wild Bird Food: Live Mealworms
• My Way: Mealworms