Do dried mealworms expire? Also, has anyone used the Royal Wing mealworm brand?

[BuffOrps416]

I just got back from TSC and I was buying mealworms, but I saw that on the Happy Hen Treats brand there is no expiration date for the dried mealworms. Do they expire and are they good/ safe to buy if there's no expiration date.

Instead I bought the Royal Wing Mealworms that has an expiration date, but I think it is meant for wild birds. Does that matter? Also, it's made in China and looking at reviews I saw that some people don't trust animal food made in China because recently the dog food was poisoned or something like that. The other brand is also made in China, but as no one has posted anything bad about them I assume there is nothing wrong with it.

Has anyone had any good/ bad experiences with this brand and are Happy Hen Treats Mealworms safe to buy even if they don/t have a date of expiration?

 

[Teila]

Hey there BuffOrps416

Coincidentally my order of live and dried meal worms was just dropped off at the front door; stocking up for Christmas

You know, I never noticed that the Hentastic ‘Mealworm To Go’ which are a Produce of China; Packed and distributed by Unipet USA LLC did not have an expiry date .. I have turned the packet over and under and around multiple times and can not see one.

Because my interest was peaked, I did some research but there was nothing concrete as to whether they expire or not. I even checked out the site of my supplier here in Aus and all it said regarding the dried meal worms was “Dried mealworms store well and require no special treatment. No refrigeration needed."

Out of interest, what was the expiration date on the Royal Wing Mealworms please? I would be interested to see if it is a short amount of time or a long time. That may not help though because we have no idea how long they have been on the shelf.

Anyways, unless the meal worms are really old when they get here, no chance of them expiring, 3.5oz [100g] of dried meal worms are gone within a month, along with the live ones

I have never had any issues which I could specifically put down to the meal worms and my gals get a couple of live ones each every day plus every 3-4 days I throw a handful of dried meal worms onto the lawn for them to scratch and eat; they appear healthy and happy.

Subscribing because I am interested to read what others think.

Edited to Add: After reading other posts, I thought I would just add that the dried worms I order do come in a resealable bag but once I have opened that they are transferred to a screw top glass jar and as mentioned, all gone within a month.

 

[centrarchid]

My chickens have indicated freeze mealworms loose their appeal at some point once the bag is opened. I think the containers are sealed to prevent contents from going rancid. They will sometimes consume the rancid mealworms but will not invest anywhere the effort they put into go after live mealworms and those from a freshly opened container. When they have a choice the live mealworms are taken preferentially over the fresh freeze dried.

 

[deacons]

I personally feel uneasy about feeding animal products from China. Unfortunately as far as I can tell all dried mealworms in the U.S. come from China, so I've stopped using them.

Instead, I order dried soldier fly larvae from Tasty Worms. They are grown & harvested in the U.S., and the chickens still love them. The people at Tasty Worms are always very nice and helpful. If you watch their website, you can almost always find a deal where you can order with no shipping, get two for one, or some other deal that makes them affordable. I do buy and store extra bags when they're running a special, and my girls love them.

 

[Raderby Ranchin]

My wife purchased 1000 meal worms online for $10 the flock loves them. They go crazy. They run around teasing each other with the live worms. That can't be done with dried worms because it just snaps as soon as they pecked for it. It was well worth it to buy live and watch them have fun. We saved some worms to colonize. We should have a large colony soon. It doesn't take much to colonize. Just rotating beetles. Beelts and worms eat potatoes and Apple's and are bedded on oatmeal. Not expensive at all. Not time consuming at all.

 

[Chickie Newbie]

I just bought the Chunky Chicken brand from My Pet Chicken and took a closer look. There is no expiration date and they are also from China which I didn't notice before. The chickens love them and have had no ill effects but I won't be buying any food products from China again just to be on the safe side. Thanks for the heads up and alternative ideas from the group.

 

[BuffOrps416]

Thank you everyone for responding! I'm glad to hear no one's had any problems with them. I think just in case though, after the chicken's eat the mealworms supply I already bought, I'm going to start raising my own. It will be fun for the girls to eat them live as well!

Also, Teila, on the Royal Wings mealworms it says 3MAR16 on the label, so I'm pretty sure that is the expiration date.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

... Has anyone had any good/ bad experiences with this brand and are Happy Hen Treats Mealworms safe to buy even if they don/t have a date of expiration?

I'll just say that i wouldn't eat them.

 

[lpatelski]

Try raising your own super worms! Get some from a store. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?c=6016&articleid=2486
It takes a while but the birds love them.

 

[roamaround1970]

Mine come with an exp date. I get them from Tasty worms which come from USA so I like the company, thinking about adding Black Soldier flies too. Can't stand raising em, ick factor too high!