# Can freeze-dried worms come back to life? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 21, 2008, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-freeze-dried-worms-come-back-to-life/478206 "2008-12-21T18:38:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Juliette\_Culture\_Junkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5fc32e/32.png) [@Juliette\_Culture\_Junkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juliette_Culture_Junkie)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-freeze-dried-worms-come-back-to-life/478206/1 "2008-12-21T18:38:39Z")
Not back to life, per se, but can they survive or carry eggs that survive? I have a pet bird who gets fed both freeze-dried and canned (cooked) mealworms. I was cleaning her cage this morning, and found dozens of live mealworms in the litter under the newspapers, but I didn’t see any pupae or beetles. I don’t know where they could have come from and I can’t find any elsewhere in the house (none in kitchen, around cage, etc). My only guesses are that some could have survived processing, that they were in the litter (which came from a year-old bag that has never yet produced any mealworms) or that they came from somewhere else in the house (doubtful, since I’ve never seen them elsewhere). Anyone know where thee guys might have came from? Should I stop feeding her freeze-dried worms, lest they come back? I could always switch to crickets. BTW, I fed some to my bird 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-freeze-dried-worms-come-back-to-life/478206/2 "2008-12-21T20:10:46Z")
There are certainly a variety of crustaceans (the sea monkey, triops, etc) that can survive dehydration, and among the insects [this one](http://elfninosmom.wordpress.com/2008/09/15/tiny-insect-can-survive-in-space/) that has survived a dozen days in open space. But not mealworms I don’t think. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-freeze-dried-worms-come-back-to-life/478206/3 "2008-12-21T20:20:19Z")
Does the bird also get fed seed mix or something like that? If so, that’s where the mealworms came from - pet food stores often sustain a population of them completely by accident - either they find their way in there naturally from the wild and survive on whatever they can get into, or they escape from stocks of deliberately-raised live mealworms and do the same. I’ve had them appear in my budgie’s seed mix. ---
**Author:** ![Juliette\_Culture\_Junkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5fc32e/32.png) [@Juliette\_Culture\_Junkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juliette_Culture_Junkie)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-freeze-dried-worms-come-back-to-life/478206/4 "2008-12-21T20:40:06Z")
No seed mixes, she only eats dried & fresh fruit and worms. I do have a bag of birdseed for my outdoor feathered friends, but that’s on the other side of the house. Maybe they could have come from there? Thank you, though! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2008, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-freeze-dried-worms-come-back-to-life/478206/5 "2008-12-21T20:45:47Z")
Maybe. I guess it could be that the pack of dried mealworms could somehow gain a population of live ones instore. I’m not sure if mealworms will eat dried mealworms, but it wouldn’t surprise me. ---
**Author:** ![nay77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3da27b/32.png) [@nay77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nay77)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-freeze-dried-worms-come-back-to-life/478206/6 "2012-10-17T16:23:07Z")
I have red dared sliders and I feed them mealworms and I found one beside cage after it got wet and it was alive so heck yea it happens ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-freeze-dried-worms-come-back-to-life/478206/7 "2012-10-17T17:08:29Z")
Well, that answers the question on whether they can come back to life years later! For a project in grade school, we kept mealworms until they grew into beetles. One rather disturbing episode is when I checked on one it its container and it looked half eaten (beetle). I don’t know whether it was a case of cannibalism or what. Link above is locked, but I assume it’s about tardigrades, who aren’t insects. ---
**Author:** ![picker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/picker/32/13969_2.png) [@picker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picker)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-freeze-dried-worms-come-back-to-life/478206/8 "2012-10-17T17:48:35Z")
I guess they do come back from the dead. ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-freeze-dried-worms-come-back-to-life/478206/9 "2012-10-17T18:06:30Z")
Sounds like an interesting science-fair project. Get various forms of pet foods and see if you can reanimate them. ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2012, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-freeze-dried-worms-come-back-to-life/478206/10 "2012-10-17T18:28:44Z")
Is it more likely that there were mealworm eggs in the batch, and that those hatched? I expect that the eggs are more likely to survive processing than actual mealworms. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-freeze-dried-worms-come-back-to-life/478206/11 "2012-10-18T16:13:24Z")
Yes, but their souls are gone. Be careful around the reanimated.