Mealworms

Mealworms are one of the commonest and most useful of livefoods.They are not worms at all, but rather the larvae of a beetlewhich is closely related to the so-called Mexican Jewel Beetles. InMexico, the beetles are caught to have small pieces of colouredglass, sequins and so on glued to their backs together with a shortlength of fine chain. The beetle on the end of this chain is pinnedto the collar of a girl's dress as a fashion accessory.The origin ofthe habit is interesting as Mexican folklore tells of a handsomeprince who was turned into a beetle by a witch. The princess wholoved him was worried that he would be trodden on, so she tied ashort piece of chain to him and pinned that to her collar so thatshe could be sure her boyfriend was safe until she could find away to break the spell.

They are easy to culture but the life cycle isa long one, so if you want livefood quickly, breed maggots. The best container to be an old aquarium, but anything ofa suitable size will do, and there is a 4-litre (7-pint)plastic ice cream tub on the floor beside me which houses mystock of mealworms. Half fill the container with dry porridge oatsand lay a couple of pieces of dry bread on the top together with abit of vegetable or fruit such as half an apple and cover thesurface with two or three sheets of newspaper cut to the size of thetank. This is about all really, except to keep it warm - mine livesnear the radiator during the winter. Every so often you will need toadd some more food - mealworms will eat almost anything vegetable, for exaomple bits of hamster mixture, apple cores and pieces of boiled potato.

After about six months, you can start harvesting your crop. The best way is to tip a quantity of the contents onto several large sheets of news-paper and spread it thinly with your fingers. If there are any adultsI put them straight back to continue breeding, but you can feedthem to your animals. After that you will find that the mealwormsstart to move around and they are easy to pick out and put into apot. It is best to collect a couple of weeks supply at a time, to savedisturbing the colony too often. Tip all the porridge and rubbish back into the culture. Never throw it away, nor indeed any driedup food, because the stuff is full of tiny eggs. If you suffer fromhay fever wear a mask for this operation. The dust makes mesneeze after sorting mealworms. The only thing towatch is that the culture never becomes damp or you can soonlose the lot.

Some people like to cover their mealworm colonies but humidity can soon start to build up, and Ihave had no problems without lids, though it is true that on oneoccasion a single beetle escaped and turned up in the bathroom.One point to note with mealworms is that they have fairly toughskins so that very small baby lizards have considerable troubledigesting them.