My mealworm population has become more beetles than worms. I don't want to feed the beetles to the chickens cuz I want more worms, but I'm curious if they would eat them cuz they are so gross to look at! I hate the cocoon or whatever you want to call that thing in the first picture, that grosses me out the most!
ALL of my chickens love the mealworms so much that I would have to work a second job to buy enough freeze dried ones. When my hens were chicks they snubbed the freeze dried ones, they wouldn't touch them until they started laying. All of my chickens love the live ones though, even the 1 week old chicks knew that they were a delicacy.
On a similar note, I have seen a ton of really big earthworms in my yard lately. The hens slurp them up out of the ground and go nuts for them, but my 8 week old chicks have dug them up and ignored them like they don't even know they are food. Chickens are weird!