Hospitality the Year 'Round 165 



in the spring. We do not always have the time 

 to collect insects in sufficient quantity, but we 

 can always have a supply of meal worms if we 

 once learn how to feed them. 



"The meal worm is the larva of a black beetle 

 which can be found from May to October about 

 granaries, mills, where feed is kept in stables, in 

 the dust in haylofts, in pigeon lofts, and meal 

 chests. The eggs are laid in these places and 

 when hatched and fully grown the larvae are 

 smooth, yellow {Tenebrio molitor), or blackish 

 (T. obscurus), 'worms' about an inch in length. 

 While commonly looked upon as pests, for feed- 

 ing birds they are well-nigh indispensable. The 

 writer has paid twenty-five cents a dozen for them 

 to feed mocking birds, and the market price 

 by the wholesale is $1.50 per thousand. If we 

 know how to use them, the worms in a meal chest 

 may thus be worth many times the value of the 

 meal, chest and all. 



" Directions in the bird books for raising meal 

 worms are quite misleading and in order to go 

 to work intelligently, we must learn the life from 

 egg to egg. The first fact to learn is that the 

 insect is single brooded, i. e., it requires an entire 

 season to complete its growth. The beetles may 

 be found laying eggs from May until freezing 

 weather in the fall. The early eggs will produce 



