I know they are available in the States but can't find a supplier in UK. Does anybody know of one or can recommend one? At the moment it looks like we are feeding the world and his wife (indiscriminately) - so the live waxworm option is realistically no longer feasible. Given that it appears that some of our garden guests have opted to start a second family I have just ordered our second 5kg bag of dried mealies so one of dried waxworms would go nicely with it, if we can source them.
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"Any glimpse into the life of an animal quickens our own and makes it so much the larger and better in every way." John Muir
I haven't a clue about dried waxworms but hopefully someone will come along soon and be able to help you Marina. I tend not to feed meal worm at all really as we have too many sparrows that would just love the chance of fattening up on that diet!!
Just thought Marina have you tried Garden Wildlife Direct? they seem to supply a variety of birdfood, indeed I have just ordered sunflower hearts from there at a very competitive price.
Lot to learn
These people do frozen wax worms http://www.priorspetproducts.co.uk/frozen-waxworms-450g-998-p.asp
Cheaper than live ones. I use live mealworms and live wax worms, but only the Robins get the wax worms because they come in to the kitchen to get them! The Sparrows eat their mealies outside.
Unicum arbustum haud alit duos erithacos
(One bush does not shelter two Robins)
Zenodotus (3rd Century B.C.)
Thank you both. Gaynor the prices at Garden Wildlife Direct are indeed competitive (for instance sunflower hearts etc that I checked come to the same amount from where I get mine). For the mealworms they are very expensive, I get the 5 kg dried mealworms at half the price precisely. They don't do dried waxworms, regrettably.
MC - thank you for the link. I use live mealies myself but this season has been mad. We just ordered our second 5kg dried mealies tub - and that is in addition to sunflower hearts/suet pellets/seed mix - all in 25kg packs and the home made pastry of course. So the lucky ones had the live mealies at the start of the season - now its dried and rehydrated. Not that they appear to mind ... even the pidges get gorging on these. They go, on average, through 750grams rehydrated mealies daily. Can't cope with the same amount live yet - but I did tell them that I may still win the lottery!
I think I will wait for a week or so and try the live/frozen combination with this year's baby robins and blue tits only - they just started visiting the garden on their own.