If you know you will not be able to feed your mealworms for several days - that’s Ok! Mealworms can live for several weeks without feeding. If you cannot get someone else to feed them, we recommend placing them into your fridge. They will hibernate. However, please be aware that eggs/pupae are less likely to survive an extended stay in your fridge.

For humans, pain is our body’s response to a stimulus. In contrast, insects have a simple nervous system and a very different biological make up to mammals, and do not perceive pain like we do.

Temperature and humidity impacts growth rate. So, if it’s too cold it can take a long time for you to produce enough insects. If it gets too humid mould might start to form, which can kill your mealworm. High humidity can cause dust mites which naturally lie dormant in oats.

Ideal Temperture: 20-28°c (68-80 fahrenheit)

Ideal Humdity: 50-70%

If you have too few beetles you will have a reduced mealworm output. If you have too many, you will have a large mealworm output and risk overpopulation, which can lead to humidity issues which can in turn lead to mould and dust mites.

It can take several weeks for the eggs to develop into mealworms. They start off very small and are barely visible.

During the cold weather we make every effort to ensure that your livefood arrives as warm and active as possible. All our delivery vans are heated, and we use a variety of packaging methods depending on the severity of the predicted weather.

This may include:
• Heat packs or
• Wrapping of livefood tubs
However, despite our best efforts, your livefood still may arrive looking lifeless.

Many of our common livefood species enter a dormant state when exposed to colder weather. As they are cold-blooded, they cannot regulate their body temperature effectively, so will slow down their body process waiting for warmer conditions – Mealworms, Morioworms, Calci worms and Crickets all do this, for example.

In order to bring the livefood around, it is important you follow a few simple steps:

1. Unpack the outer boxes and lay out all packs/tubs so that fresh air can circulate around them.
2. Leave the packs/tubs at room temperature 18⁰C-25⁰C.
3. Do not offer external heat as warming up livefood quickly will kill them. This is the most common cause of livefood deaths.
4. For bulk bags of livefood, gently agitate the bag to spread-out the insects within. Leave at room temperature and prop up in a horizontal position.
5. Livefood may take several hours to completely recover but 99% of live food will recover fully providing they are treated correctly upon arrival.

Our pods are designed around the life cycle of the mealworm. Superworms have a slightly different life cycle from mealworms, superworms need to be isolated from other superworms to turn into a pupa. They also cannot have access to food or water. Our pods do not isolate the insects so you can not use them to breed superworms effectively. However, if you have a tackle box or pill bottles you can put them in there until they pupate and then return them to the trays to store.