The Humble Mealworm: Uses and Benefits in Fishing and Bird Feeding

Haith's have some fantastic products that they sell but one that doesn't seem to get the credit it deserves is the humble mealworm.

Available as both dried and live, the mealworms from Haith's are as you would expect from a company of this calibre simply fantastic quality.

Mealworms are a great source of protein for your domesticated or garden birds but... They are also a fantastic food source of a lot of exotic animals; my African Pygmy Hedgehog for example, absolutely loves them.

I feed him the dried mealworms mixed in with his selection of dried cat foods and then he gets some of the live mealworms as a treat every so often.

Mealworms are fantastic for fishing!! The live mealworms make a great alternative hook bait to maggots and fish are highly attracted to them. The dried mealworms have a few uses in fishing the first is as a brilliant attractant to add to your ground bait.

You can either make your own ground bait with fine breadcrumb and whatever other ingredients you wish to add or you can use a ready mixed shop bought ground bait.

When measuring out your ground bait simply replace 10% of your ground bait with crushed dried mealworms, the fact it's crushed rather than ground will give you different size pieces of mealworms which will float and sink in the water column around your bait.

The next two methods involve ground dried mealworms (easiest way to do this is chuck them in a blender or coffee grinder) and the first method is to include them in your Boilie mix.

It is a great ingredient to add and will give the fish something different from what they are used to in boilies. A good Boilie recipe for using mealworm is...

250g Haith's CLO
250g Haith's Nectarblend
250g Lamlac
100g Semolina
50g Wheatgerm
50g Haith's Robin Red
25g Brocacel
25gGround Mealworm
500ml Whole Egg Powder Mix
5g FeedStimulants Summer/Winter Amino Compound

The final way that I'd like to show you on using dried mealworms is as a coating for your boilies or pellets.

To prepare your pellets or boilies is very simple, take 1kg of boilies or pellets and place them into an airtight container.

Now pour 50ml of oil such as salmon or hemp oil into the container with your boilies or pellets.

Seal the container and gently rotate until all the pellets or boilies have a good coating.

Take 25g of ground mealworm and tip it into the airtight container, again rotate until all the boilies or pellets are coated in the ground mealworm.

Written by Anthony Wood