Mealworms: Your Next Best Friend in the Fight Against Climate Change (And 4 Ways to Become Rich In The Process)
Three things to understand before we begin:
1) I have no affiliation with any organizations referenced in this article (no money, no endorsements, nothing).
2) I am not a professional in any sense of the word, and this does not constitute professional advice. This article was written for informational and entertainment purposes only. I am not liable for your actions and the resulting consequences based on what you read here, or in the links included in this article.
3) Content warnings include: Crude humor, images of insects, and profanity.
You’re a good person, and you want to do your part to make the world a better place. But climate change stresses you out immensely. You want to do something, but you don’t know what. You don’t even know where to start. And to top it off, you don’t have the “power” to do anything about it. You don’t have any money!
Welp, that sounds like quite the predicament. I can’t give you all the answers to solve this problem, but I can suggest one solution that may pique your interest.
Enter mealworms.
Wiggling, wriggling, creepy crawly mealworms. The first image that comes to mind is that stunt from Fear Factor where they buried a person in a box full of them. “Yuck! No thanks,” You say, trying not to gag. “You’re really trying to tell me this is the answer to climate change?”
Yes. Well, it’s one of them. But mealworms aren’t just planet-saviors. They can also fill that empty wallet of yours. With cash, of course. But you could fill your wallet with mealworms, too. (I won’t judge.)
Insect imagery aside, my goal in this article is to encourage you to see mealworms as a viable, renewable source of revenue and environmental benefit. Or at the very least, my hope is that you will have a better opinion of mealworms than you did before reading, because they are truly underrated organisms and deserve some praise.
So here we go. Let’s get started.
Overview
If you want to save the planet and get rich trying, this is the article for you. Even if you don’t immediately pursue a lifelong career in mealworm farming after reading this, I hope the information provided here will renew your faith in building a more sustainable future.
There are many solutions to these environmental problems that exist right now. We just have to implement them. And I don’t believe it needs to take millions of dollars and a Walmart-sized corporation to make a difference (though that sure would be nice). What I will be sharing with you is incredibly low-maintenance and cheap to get started.
Here is what I will be covering:
- What Mealworms Are
- What Mealworms Do
- Why This is Important (Environmental Benefits)
- 4 Reasons to Form an Alliance with Mealworms
- 4 Ways to Make Money with Mealworms
- Considerations and Caveats
- Conclusion and Crawl To Action (Haha)
- Resources and Recommendations for Further Learning and Doing
What will not be covered:
Though I will share a great deal of information about mealworms, this is by no means a comprehensive breakdown of everything you would need or want to know about them. After reading this you should be able to explain to someone else what a mealworm is and razzle dazzle them with a few factoids, but I’m trying my darnedest to keep this relatively brief for your reading (and my writing) pleasure.
I will not cover technical information on how to raise mealworms or the specifics of starting a business that involves farming them. There are tons of cool people online who already have excellent resources to help you with every step of that endeavor (See Resources and Recommendations at the end of the article). My goal is just to make you aware that this opportunity exists and open your eyes to the possibilities that are out there.
So without further adieu, let’s introduce our unsung environmental heroes.
What Are Mealworms?
When you think mealworms, you’re probably just picturing that squirmy little creature you see at the pet store in those plastic containers.
But did you know that’s only one of its forms? And that the mealworm isn’t even its final form?
Mealworms are actually the larvae of the Tenebrio molitor beetle. Tenebrio is a genus of beetles whose Latin meaning translates to “darkness”, which is badass and refers to their nocturnal habits (molitor translates to “worker”). When a mealworm grows through the pupal stage and becomes an adult, it completely transforms into a beetle that looks like this:
It wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized there was more to the mealworm than just the worm… I mean, beetle. Like with humans, an exorbitant amount of attention seems to be placed on the stages before adulthood: prepubescence, pubescence, and adolescence. Nobody glamorizes what happens after that, and that’s a real shame. I wish I could tell you we’d be changing that today, but it is during the larval stage that all of these benefits are to be reaped (this article is focused on mealworms, after all), so I guess this time you can lump me in with the rest of them.
If you want to see the life cycle and stages of development of a mealworm (darkling beetle), here’s a neat video that runs that by you in just under four minutes.
Mealworms are fairly widespread in their range. They originated in the Mediterranean region (Europe and/or Africa) and are now found all over the globe for their most well-known use as feed for livestock and exotic pets.
But besides being preyed upon, what else do mealworms do in their spare time? Let’s find out.
What Do Mealworms Do?
Put simply, mealworms eat, poop, transform, lay eggs, and die. Kind of like us in a way, right?
In no particular order (though saving the best for last), here’s a dive into what mealworms concern themselves with on a day-to-day basis.
Giving Trash Pandas a Run for Their Money
Mealworms are decomposers. They eat dead stuff, things that would be just left there to grow nasty and rot if they weren’t eaten. Think flies and ants, the holometabolic hoodlums you see hidden in your trash. Mealworms are a part of that gang.
So if you were worried about one biting you or trying to eat you in your sleep, you can rest easy knowing that they would at least wait until you were already dead before feasting on you. Many other animals simply cannot rival that amount of courtesy.
After gorging themselves on your dead body, mealworms may start to feel remorse, but they can’t drink to forget because they can’t drink at all. They obtain the moisture they need from the food that they eat.
In reality, mealworms are pretty harmless, because again, they don’t eat anything that is alive, provided they have enough food (apparently they do cannibalize each other when times get rough, but then again so have we). However, mealworms can be a pest for those who store grains, as they will find their way in there and gobble away, but they aren’t a very serious concern provided they are well-contained.
Oh, and did I mention they can digest styrofoam? More on that in a bit.
Laying Like There’s No Tomorrow
If you thought having ten kids was an impressive feat, try popping out 275. Like Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II, each female darkling beetle is primarily responsible for producing offspring in the triple digits. While Ramses II commemorated his children by including their images on monuments, the female darkling beetles do no such thing; they are not even remotely involved in raising their offspring and will happily eat them if given the chance. They giveth life, and they taketh it away, as my mom likes to say.
Transforming All the Time
Like experiencing a series of mid-life crises, mealworms in the larval stage shed their exoskeleton between nine and 20 times, growing in size (and character ❤) each time they molt. This isn’t counting the transition between life cycle stages, where each metamorphosis changes the behavior and external appearance of the beetle.
Shitting Gold and Buried Treasure
All of these things are fine and dandy, but I think the real magic is in the poop. You see, mealworms and other decomposers are a fundamental part of the natural recycling that takes place here on Earth. They eat the stuff that none of us humans want anymore, and what do they give us in return? Black gold. Their feces is what contributes to the development of healthy and nutritious soil, one that is more capable of supporting ideal plant growth.
Those of you who are into all that hippie-dippy stuff already get the picture or are at least beginning to see it. As for the rest of you, continue along with me this way and I’ll attempt to clarify what’s so magical about mealworm mudpies.
Why Is This Important?
The functions that mealworms perform as part of everyday life are incredibly beneficial to the environment and may be the answer to a few different problems we have when it comes to undoing the ongoing damage of climate change and heading toward a more sustainable future.
Here is a brief bare-bones summary of some of the environmental processes mealworms contribute to. It’s a bit nerdy and technical and many of these processes could be (and may be) elaborated on in separate articles, but I figured word-vomiting for now would get the point across quick-and-simple. Here goes:
- Mealworms fix nitrogen from atmosphere → eat food waste → produce nutritious poop (with deposited nitrogen) → build healthier soils
- Mealworms eat and digest styrofoam → do their thang (eating and pooping) → produce CO2 and biomass → a safe way (so far, according to current research) to eliminate styrofoam from the environment
- Building healthier soils → growing healthier plants → improved crop yields → better meet increasing global food demands
- Healthier plants → good old photosynthesis → supporting plants in converting CO2 to O2 → reducing carbon emissions by sequestering carbon
- Feeding mealworms food waste → reduction of waste in landfills → reduction of methane produced in landfills → reducing greenhouses gases (notably methane)
- Mealworms dying via predation → source of protein and other nutrients for animals → less resources used (more on that later)
It’s one thing to invent a machine or build a factory that can recycle a material, but it’s another thing entirely when you have a creature in your possession that does it just for shits and giggles. Somehow I doubt mealworms giggle, but I know they shit, so I say that’s close enough.
What I’m trying to say is that it’s amazing that these processes that we as humans may try to develop using advanced technology are already present and available in the form of a living being, and more than that, that engaging in that process directly supports the life of that being (if you’re raising them solely for composting instead of food).
It’s like having a friend whose superpower is repairing the ozone layer or de-acidifying the ocean. It’s fricken’ fantastic.
As if the environmental benefits weren’t already good enough, there are other reasons why someone should consider rubbing elbows with some mealworms. Which leads us to the next topic:
4 Reasons to Form an Alliance with Mealworms
So you already know that a lot of good can come out of a relationship with mealworms, but is it worth the effort? How much work is involved, anyway? You’d be pleased to discover that working with mealworms is suitable for beginners for a number of reasons. Allow me to elaborate.
Low Barrier to Entry
Anybody can do this. Okay, maybe not anybody. You have to be able to stand the sight of mealworms, or employ the help of people who can stand the sight of mealworms for this to work. That being said:
- Mealworms are inexpensive to raise
- Mealworms are relatively easy to care for compared to other types of animals
- Mealworm farming has the potential to be a great educational opportunity for people of all ages
- There’s a financial incentive, if you’re into that kind of thang
1. Inexpensive to Maintain
The cost of doing this is pretty cheap, primarily because mealworms eat dead trash. The majority of people have some amount of food waste that they either throw away or compost, and a good part of that can be used to maintain a colony of mealworms. So the food to feed them can be free. (Not to mention styrofoam is a possibility and is also fairly easy to come by, unfortunately.)
Set-ups for raising mealworms are simple and easy to construct, and a common way to keep them is in a layered drawer system like you see here:
You can see how each drawer is labeled based on what stage of development the mealworms are in. This is a larger set-up compared to those who are just starting out. To see how small you can make it and what materials would be needed, check out this DIY Mealworm Farming tutorial from Meyer Hatchery.
All of the materials are typically a one-time purchase, unless you want to buy more to expand your mealworm population. I’d argue you could build your own set-up from discarded or secondhand materials. Either way, it’s not breaking the bank.
The same group that created the set-up pictured above also visualized an even cuter mealworm farm that I’ve included here. It’s very Pinterest-worthy, isn’t it?
2. Comparatively Easy to Care For
Raising mealworms isn’t like having a kid or a dog. It’s not as complicated as keeping fish that require intricate aquarium systems, and they’re not as finicky as some plants are to take care of.
You have to remember that they have specially adapted to eat what we consider to be garbage, so they’re not picky and they are fairly independent. Nobody is holding their hand while they’re munching on trash (though again, you could if you wanted to ❤). They do it because they love it.
Mealworms can thrive within a large range of temperatures. As long as you aren’t living in an extreme hot or cold climate (below freezing and above around 104F), you could probably get away with keeping mealworms without needing to control the temperature too much. Even if you do live in one of those extreme regions, you could keep them inside and that problem is essentially solved.
“Keep them inside?!” You cough out, nearly choking on your beverage of choice. “Well if I do that, pretty soon they’ll be eating at the dinner table and sleeping in our beds. Grumble grumble grumble.” Nonsense, I say. They take up only a few cubic feet at least and can be tucked away in the garage.
Also, it’s worth noting that mealworms don’t really smell like anything, which is a huge plus. Like with most other forms of composting, you only smell something off when the colony or pile is not being maintained properly. Mealworms can actually remove some of the ungodly odor emanating from your home considering they eat your undesirables, so you might want to reconsider your stance on their stench.
3. Educational Opportunity for Everyone
Do you have kids (or spouses) who are so glued to their electronics that they can’t tell whether they’re still in the Matrix or not? Perhaps getting to interact with a real piece of nature can help jog their memory and remind them of what planet they’re on.
Mealworms are already used in a lot of classrooms to teach kids about basic biology concepts. Their life cycle is fairly brief (up to several months for adult beetles and only a couple months for the earlier stages), which is plenty short enough for your child’s attention span to take in some important lessons about the world around them.
Topics of Discussion May Include:
- General Life Cycle Stuff — Life, death, and everything in between
- Awareness of Insects and Decomposers — They exist, you know
- Ecology — Everything has a role (then you tell your kids that theirs is to do their chores, aha)
- Composting — Yes, you can teach children to do this (it truly is that easy)
- Reproduction — Perhaps as an interesting alternative to “the birds and the bees”, no?
4. Financial Incentive
I saved the best for last again. What a slimeball, I know. It’s like the first few dates of a new relationship. I had to show you all of their lovable attributes before I could let you use and abuse mealworms for your selfish gains. At least now you know and can build your massive empire of wealth with some background knowledge.
Anyway, there’s some big money in this. If not for the service of composting or digesting styrofoam, mealworms can also be raised for treats for exotic pets, feed for chicken and other livestock, or for human consumption. Let’s get into that next.
4 Ways to Make Money with Mealworms
Like I mentioned earlier, mealworms are prolific breeders. Which means if you are wanting to raise them for the sake of generating a ton of mealworms to sell for profit, you’d probably be able to grow that population pretty quickly.
Here are all the ways I can name immediately on how to make money with mealworms:
1. Treats for Exotic Pets and Livestock
My aunt feeds her chickens mealworms, and they go absolutely bonkers for them. I also recall feeding some to Tokey, my family’s bearded dragon, once upon a time ago. Tokey loved mealworms so much that if I sadistically wiggled my pinky finger like a mealworm he would mistake it for his favorite snack and attempt to maim me through the glass.
Many people also use mealworms as bait for fishing. You can feed mealworms to animals live or dried, though live mealworms are more exciting for some animals. You could be generating your pets treats for free and they’ll love you as if you paid the big bucks for them.
Technical Note: Double check to ensure that feeding mealworms to your chickens is legal where you live. Feeding chickens store-bought mealworms is illegal in the UK and parts of Europe. It is not illegal in the US. The reason for this is to reduce contamination and prevent spreading illness to chickens, who could then pass them on to humans. This sounds rather alarming, but the majority of the concern lies with the way the mealworms are raised and stored in transit. If you ask me, this seems like more of a reason to raise them yourself, since you would know firsthand what they are eating and can prevent or mitigate health concerns (for example, dried mealworms are more prone to contamination and can cause more health issues than live mealworms).
A styrofoam container of 50 mealworms from the pet store costs around $3. Three dollars isn’t much in this day and age, but remember that a female darkling beetle lays hundreds of eggs in one sitting. That’s one female darkling beetle. You would probably have more than that. Do the rough math and fathom 1) how much money you would save in the long run and 2) how much money you could make if you wanted to scale up and start dealing them out to your chicken-cuddling colleagues.
Once you’re moving on up in the mealworm world, you could consider selling mealworms to people who have livestock. They’re a tasty and nutritious treat for many animals, but that’s not all. We can eat them, too!
2. An Alternative Source of Protein, for People!
Insect protein is quickly becoming a growing industry, and mealworms are the up-and-coming stars of the show. People are starting to catch on that insect protein is vastly more sustainable than other forms of protein (beef, chicken, pork, etc.) in regard to their carbon footprint: the amount of space and resources needed to maintain them, and the emissions they put out. Not only are they more environmentally sustainable in almost every way, but the amount of protein you can obtain from insects rivals and demolishes that of animal protein.
Quick-and-dirty stats are a bit more difficult to obtain considering the nutritional value of these insects varies widely by their stage and species, so here is the 2013 report from the FAO that began popularizing entomophagy in the west. That report will tell you what you want to know and probably much much more.
So if you’re able to get a mealworm operation up and running, you’re not just talking about removing a pesky source of plastic pollution from our soils and food system. You’re a pioneer in a growing field that is likely to be lucrative for anyone who gets in on it. It’s not difficult to grind mealworms into flour or perhaps squash them into a patty. It doesn’t have to look and taste like raw mealworms, either. You could try a buqadilla — like the filling for a quesadilla, but made with 60% chickpeas and 40% mealworms. The possibilities are endless.
3. Frass
It rhymes with ass, and it isn’t too far off. Frass is insect poop, and yes, you can make money with this. Frass can be sold and used as a fertilizer. If you don’t believe me, take a look at this growers supply site where they are selling frass by the pound. Even with insect feces, it’s better to buy in bulk.
If you’d rather not create a livelihood out of poop purchases, you could just keep the frass for yourself and use it to fertilize your plants. Remember that as decomposers, mealworms are partly responsible for that lovely natural recycling process that creates rich and nutritious soil. Whether you’d like to run a more plant-based business or just grow the best roses on the block, collecting frass from mealworms is something to consider.
4. Mealworm Waste Management
Finally, the most exciting prospect, in my opinion.
In 2015, researchers from Beihang and Stanford University discovered that mealworms are capable of eating, digesting, and excreting styrofoam the way they would with other foods. And initially you would think, “Okay, so they can eat styrofoam. But what happens after that?”
The styrofoam is broken down by the bacteria in their gut and transformed into carbon dioxide and organic matter — the frass. What they digest and produce as a byproduct is organic and not harmful to the environment, at least not according to the research that is available on it now.
Once the styrofoam is fully digested and has passed through the mealworm’s system, it could still potentially be fed to chickens or other animals that eat mealworms as feed. Mealworms can subsist on a diet of only styrofoam for at least a month, which is nuts. (I would personally ensure that the worms aren’t mid-digestion prior to do doing this, perhaps by separating colonies for styrofoam recycling vs animal feed — do your research and due diligence to discover the best way to approach this.)
This is a pretty big deal. It’s a way to degrade a material that naturally doesn’t break down for hundreds of years. To think that what was once cancer-level bad news for the environment could now become a non-issue is definitely a discovery worth celebrating and a bandwagon worth hopping onto.
Besides styrofoam, mealworms could also be used to break down regular household waste, namely food waste from unused scraps or even food surplus.
Food waste is one of the most pitiful problems we have here on Earth, when we now know that about 828 million people are chronically hungry around the world but between 30 and 40 percent of the food supply is wasted in the United States. People are still working out the kinks on global food distribution and finding ways to make the big picture come together, but in the meantime mealworms could help process some of the waste so it turns into something beneficial instead of being left to sit in a landfill and turn into methane, which is much more damaging to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.
Considerations and Caveats
Now, before you go around willy-nilly spewing out insects everywhere like some kind of mealworm wizard, we have to discuss the great responsibility that comes with that great power.
Like any other mighty quest, please carefully consider and research the path you’d like to take before embarking on it. This article is intended to spread awareness and perhaps ignite an interest in the subject, but it is far from everything you would need to know in order to begin doing something like this.
Some considerations to keep in mind:
The Food Pyramid Applies to Mealworms and Other Animals, Too
If you’re using mealworms to feed other animals, pay attention to what you’re feeding the larvae to ensure they are going to be healthy for your pet or livestock. Feeding mealworms Cheetos means feeding your chicken a Cheeto-filled insect — Empty calories with a little extra crunch. Nutrition is still important, so please don’t forget about it.
Wash Yo Goddamn Hands
You’re right to be paranoid about sleeping with mealworms in your bed, because like most other living things on the planet, they are prone to their own illnesses, and these can be spread to other animals, including us humans. Mealworms were recently deemed safe for human consumption by the EFSA, which says a lot about their relative risk, but you still want to make sure you’re taking precautions to keep every creature involved healthy and strong.
Lock It Down
As much as you might want to brand your mealworm farm as “free-range” and “cage-free”, it’s best to keep your colony contained. Mealworms are considered a pest for grain crops and can even indulge themselves on insulation if they wriggle into the wrong places. For a creature who can’t even drink, let alone attempt to free themselves the way a dog or a person might, it should be manageable to prevent this from happening, but you would need to make sure you are keeping them in an appropriate enclosure and do what you can to mitigate this possibility.
Use What Those Mealworms Gave You
One caveat to consider is that the process of composting does involve the respiration of microorganisms, so it’s not fool-proof in terms of its overall environmental impact. Those little mealworms will digest the styrofoam/food waste and release carbon dioxide, which still contributes to the atmospheric portion of climate change (though still much less harmful than methane in terms of its warming ability). That’s where I think additional energy needs to be invested in making sure that wonderfully-organic byproduct of mealworm digestion is used to support healthy plant growth. The plants are everything. They turn the tides of atmospheric imbalance by changing that CO2 back into oxygen. We want to do everything we can to support them, because we’ve taken so much and not given it back.
Tenebrio molitor Troubleshooting
When you have too many worms and not enough food scraps? Strike up a friendly conversation and ask your neighbors to use theirs. Use weeds from your garden. Become the coolest and weirdest aunt/uncle/cousin/friend and give some mealworms away for the holiday season. Food waste is a real issue (as evidenced by my preaching thus far, if nothing else) and I think having to hustle to utilize material that would otherwise be trapped in a plastic bag is a better problem to have. It’s a process that can grow and continue to solve a fundamental issue in our food system until it becomes the solution to even larger dilemmas. Wouldn’t that be great?
“Help! I’m making too much money raising mealworms!”
See, I knew you could do it. Now comes the stress of success. Maybe consider paying the mealworms for all their hard work with all that cold hard cash burning a hole in your pocket. I don’t know exactly what they’d do with it, but my money’s on them eating the money. A way to make blood money disappear? Now there’s an idea.
Conclusion
Even if you don’t leave your 9-to-5 to get down with this dirty job, a small-scale colony can still provide a lot of benefits in terms of self-sufficiency: cheap and sustainable protein, food for your pets, an in-home garbage disposal system that doesn’t reek. A mealworm farm is scalable from a mini biology project to a massive operation depending on your wants and needs, which is pretty sweet.
I sincerely hope that reading this article provided you with new and useful knowledge that you didn’t have before. Or if you already knew everything prior to clicking (like the genius that you are), I hope I managed to coax a chuckle out of you or encouraged you to smile.
Crawl To Action: Ideas for Engagement
Do you have chickens on your property or know friends who do? Do you have an exotic pet who would love to snack on some home-raised mealworms?
- Have the Tenebrio molitor talk with your poultry pals and spread the word. Maybe you’re not in the mood for some mealworm magic, but they might be. And you can claim credit for inspiring them to do it.
- If you’re feeling squeamish, try buying one of those little cups of mealworms from the store and see how you feel. Are they as terrifying as you thought? Could you grow to love and cherish them?
Are you bored in the kitchen and wanting to spice up your culinary life?
- Try experimenting with an insect-based diet starting with mealworms.
- Have a discussion about it with your family and friends: Would they try eating mealworms? Why or why not?
Do you eat food? Do you eat 100% of your food with absolutely no waste? (I’d be incredibly impressed, if so.)
- Consider keeping mealworms (or other composting organisms) in and/or around your home to take a load off your trashcan’s shoulders.
Resources and Recommendations for Further Learning and Doing
Mealworm Farming
There’s a myriad of video content for people who want to begin mealworm farming, courtesy of YouTube University.
If you’re already at the point where you’ve decided you want to try mealworm farming, you can buy mealworms here. Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm is a good resource for those interested in raising earthworms for composting, but they also sell mealworms, too.
Digesting Plastics
Mealworms aren’t the only insects capable of digesting plastics. Read about more recent developments in this field here.
Entomophagy
If you’re curious about eating insects in general, you’ll want to start researching entomophagy. Here are a couple cool websites that discuss eating insects, including our beloved mealworms.
I’ll also leave the 2013 FAO Report on Edible Insects here once more, just because it is chock-full of information on the subject that you might find interesting.
If you’re feeling adventurous enough to want to try adding some insect protein to your diet, you can buy insect food products here.
Nervous about what that set-up might look like? Check out this table-top farm for edible insects. It’s fairly stylish in my opinion.
Congrats! You made it through a moderately-sized read. Make sure to drink some water and give your eyes a solid rest before binging more content on your electronic device; you deserve the break. Until next time!
