Saw something interesting on a visit to the local pet supply store – a bag of dried mealworms for poultry. There were a few things that surprised me, the first that they were retailing $15 for a 100g bag (that’s $150 a kilo), and the second was that it was a product of China.

So what I don’t understand is how anyone would want to pay so much for mealworms (and that was a sale price no less), when it’s so much easier to just grow them for yourself. A box of the live one costs about $5, and all you need to build up a decent population is a couple of bags of oats and some carrot cuttings.

The second issue was where it came from. For what possible reason would you need to grow mealworms so far away, bag them, and ship them down? What a waste.

When it comes to your backyard chickens and quail, I can confirm that they love eating mealworms about as much as they love eating earthworms. Get some live ones and try it out yourself, or just start farming your own supply from a box about the size of a laptop 😉

No Mealworms for Humans?

I guess there was a third thing that overpriced bag of imported mealworms that got me curious. Why was it only for the birds? I’ve eaten plenty of mealworms cooked in many different ways, they taste good and are healthy. Just look at the analysis – 47% protein, 25% fat, 6% fiber.

If those numbers weren’t from an insect the Paleo and Caveman dieters would be going more crazy for it. For all you entrepreneurs out there that dream of making a fortune selling common items for stupid prices, add dried mealworms to your list.

The next day I started to think about the factory where those mealworms are dried and bagged, and wondered, what if there were 2 or 3 different types of stickers? This one for Poultry, one for Humans, another one for fish? And depending on which sticker was put on is where the bag would end up. Maybe the bag for humans would have a picture of a guy sitting on the couch stuffing them into his face while chugging down a beer. And the second picture might be at a kids party, with the mom pouring the bag of mealworms into a bowl, to the cheers or hungry children!

How much would you pay for a bag of dried and salted mealworms fit for human consumption? Maybe 5 bucks would do it, just to help support the company doing it. Who’s doing it, I got 5 bucks burning a hole in my pocket!