When I first discovered that we would have to take care of mealworms for the rest of the semester in our dorms, I freaked. I am not a bug person in any sense and touching these squirmy beings gave me the shivers. In fact, in class, I did not touch them but asked my braver classmates to place some in the habitat of shavings and styrofoam. Only they were safely in their plastic container, tightly sealed by nylon mesh and hot glue, I inspected them and realized they weren’t AS gross as I initially imagined. I still did not want someone to knock them over in the middle of the night, so I placed them in the cupboard, not completely knowing how well they would fare in the complete dark. However, whenever I did open the cupboard to grab something, I heard little crunching noises so I knew at least some were alive and well. After I received the email of them eating through the nylon mesh and escaping, I was hesitant to check up on them, not wanting to find worms all over my food. Luckily, they didn’t eat through mine, but as a safety precaution, I placed the plastic bin in another bag, though still allowing space for them to breathe. I find it very fascinating how they can digest styrofoam, something to be notoriously harmful to the environment. If they could somehow do this on a larger scale, mealworms may have a serious impact on the waste epidemic.
