So I found a place (earthworms4sale) that had the same price as Uncle Jim's, so I ordered them on Sunday. It said they were supposed to ship out on Monday, but I didn't get an email, tracking update, nothing. I emailed on Tuesday and heard nothing back. Hubs called on Wednesday and they answered the phone as Uncle Jim's Worm farm! What?!? I double checked their website and it says nothing about Uncle Jim's on there! looked like 2 youngish boys, family business type of setup. UGGGHHH!I can only hope they all arrive. I ordered 5,000, and I expect to receive every single one, healthy and wiggling, or they'll be hearing about it!
I found a place on ebay that has 10k mealworms for 32. They don't have much feedback, but the little that they have is 100% positive. I heard shipping is slow with them, but the weather is pretty mild right now, so it should be all right.
Advertising under several names is fairly common and not just with worms. I needed to have my septic tank pumped for a county inspection a few years back. There was half a dozen companies advertized in the phone book. They all had the same price to the penny. It turned out that no matter what company you used the same guy showed up. All his relatives were taking his calls under different company names and passing the orders along. I believe that Uncle Jim's is doing the internet version of this.
BTW, I don't remember if its Eisenia Foetida also known as the Red Wiggler you purchased but they are normally sold by the pound with 2000 adult worms to the pound. On the worms4earth site they are claiming that there are only 800 to 1000 worms per pound. If they send you tiny baby worms there should be more worms to the pound. If its Eisenia Foetida you bought your 5000 worms should weigh 2 1/2 pounds (5 cups). When you get your package look at the weight the post office printed on the package. Redworms will dehydrate a bit in shipping but the shipping weight will tell you how much the package weighed to begin with.
While checking the weight will give you a quick idea what you have counting them will give you a better idea how quickly your worm population will expand. An easy way to tell about how many worms you have without counting every last single one of them is to count out a small amount of worms, like a quarter cup. Then measure out how many cups of worms you have and multiply. Number of worms in quarter cup X number of quarter cups = number or worms.
Good Luck
