Animals and Volunteers... Who rehabilitates whom?

On my latest visit to Greenwood I wanted to learn about the volunteers.  I've commented before that it takes a village to rehabilitate the animals at Greenwood, so who are those villagers?  On my first visit to Greenwood I was introduced to Page van der Linden and there is a big reason why she is my first volunteer to spotlight !  Page is a tireless volunteer who spends two full days each week at Greenwood.  For the past year, in addition to caring for the raccoons, she has become the resident "Worm Warrior" and volunteer extraordinaire. 

It all started about 3 years ago when a life-changing medical issue forced Page to change paths.  She and her husband moved to Colorado, she re-dedicated herself to playing classical piano and a quest to keep her sanity led her to Greenwood.  She learned to care for squirrels, raccoons and song birds and has a passion for doing what is necessary to make Greenwood thrive.  I'm not quite sure how the events unfolded but it was recognized that meal worms were a huge expense for Greenwood.  Surely someone could "grow" them?  Well, there were anecdotes on the internet but no one seemed to have a system.  So, along with Amanda, a wildlife rehabilitator at Greenwood, Page set out to learn about growing worms.  Her chemistry background helped as she experimented with different growing conditions and they tweaked the process until  they now have a reproducible system.

Meal worms are actually the larva of the Darkling Beetles (related to stink bugs).  They are a staple diet of song birds and lizards at Greenwood and you can see a picture of them in my second blog post.  The beetles lay hundreds of eggs into a bran mixture and eventually the eggs turn into lavae.  But left unattended, the beetles will eat the larvae, so that's where Page comes in.  Page, and other volunteers, spend hours sorting through bins filled with bran and removing tiny larva from harm's way.  The larvae are then transferred to a "nursery bin" where they grow from nearly undetectable "hair-like" larvae to larger larvae.  These larvae are a bit like snakes -- shedding their exoskeleton at each growth stage .  Page and the volunteers sort through the bins to keep things clean since one bad worm can spoil the nursery.  After the larvae have finished growing they can be fed to the animals or they become pupae which in turn become beetles.  These must also be sorted since newly hatched beetles like to eat pupae!  Storing larvae turns out to be a tricky endeavor and a goof by a well-meaning volunteer whiped out close to two-thirds of their meal worm stock earlier this spring!  It was a huge blow for the volunteers and staff at Greenwood but the upside is that they were able to grow some more!  Since the system is now well in place, Greenwood has raised over 45,000 more meal worms and the staff is confident that the system is sustainable (except that they now how bins full of beetles -- beetle stew anyone?)

It's hard to believe that the over 1300 song birds that go through Greenwood every year can eat hundreds of thousands of worms but Greenwood's purchase of commercially available worms to augment their homegrown stock serves as proof.  In future years this may not be necessary thanks to the tireless efforts of Page and the other volunteers.  So, if you are ever in Greenwood, say thanks to Page.  You'll often find her sitting in the worm room just behind the front desk.  She might be in a meditative trance as she sorts through the worm bins but she'll be eager to take a break.  Thank you Page, you ARE Greenwood! 

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