166 Wild Bird Guests 



larvae which are full-grown by September or 

 October of the same season, and larva? from the 

 late eggs do not attain their full growth until 

 about midsummer of the next season. A female 

 beetle lays from twenty to fifty eggs. While 

 practically any farinaceous material — corn meal, 

 ground feed, cracker crumbs, bread crusts — is 

 suitable, feeding experiments have proved that 

 wheat, in some form or other, is preferred and 

 yields the best specimens. " 



Professor Hodge suggests that the best way to 

 rear a supply of meal worms is to take a good- 

 sized tight box or earthen jar, half fill it with 

 ground feed, corn meal, oatmeal, ground wheat, 

 bread crusts — any or all of them — some scraps 

 of leather, a raw potato or two to supply water, 

 and last and most important, drop into it a few 

 hundred larvae or beetles. They should be 

 covered with cloths — woolen ones are best, but 

 cotton ones or burlap are almost as good, and 

 over all there should be a lid of wire screening. 

 The potatoes should be renewed as they are 

 eaten; otherwise the insects should be left alone. 

 If the original stock is started about April, you 

 should have a fine lot of meal worms for use by 

 the fall. After that it will be an easy matter to 

 keep a supply on hand for feeding after cold 

 spring storms and in other emergencies. 



