Shipping method in cold weather

[a.ojala]

I have to ship a stag beetle out next week, and the person who's receiving the beetle lives in a area where it gets really cold. I'm going to put a couple 72 hour heat pads in the box. I just want to find out what type of substate should I use, most of the time I use moist paper towels, but will moister freeze the beetle. Any ideas are welcomed, thanks.

[GeneralZero]

Are you back in the US? What state is it? I live in NC and it's been rather cold here and most of the eastern northern states have been at freezing or below freezing. I would recommend using priority and perhaps a small moist towel nothing large...a few more details would be better. I had an L3 come in and died for some reason she seemed to be okay at first but I could tell something was wrong and about a day and a half later she died. I've purchased larvae before, but never around this time..and alas had a causality.

[a.ojala]

No, still in the uk for one more week. Shipping should only take about 3-5 days by the way.

[GeneralZero]

Hm...well I suppose they should be alright, just try to securely wrap everything. I wouldn't add too much paper towels however just in case it does get cold enough to freeze over.

[Beautiful Bugs]

For what it's worth, I can describe the method I use to ship in freezing weather.

 

I use a 7x7x6 priority mail box.

 

Cut all 6 sides out of styrofoam and line the box with that.

 

Cut an additional styro wall about 1/2" shorter than the regular height and use that as a divider.

 

I use a 72hr heat pack and wrap that in newpaper, then place that behind the styro wall.

 

Put the "bugs" in the container and wrap the container with newspaper.

 

Then I use green fiber blown insulation to pack around the container.

 

Put the top styro on, fold up the box and tape it,

 

Then add on the label and send off priority.

 

On average with shipping and all materials it costs me $10, however everything arrives alive.

 

If you don't wrap the heat pack in newspaper, it will reach over 100F and be roasting inside the box. The heat is caused by a chemical reaction to air, so by wrapping the pack you slow down the reaction.

 

May be a bit excessive, however it has saved me DOAs on shipping countless times.

[GeneralZero]

Definitely go with Beautiful Bugs method sounds very sturdy as opposed to simply adding newspaper.

[Beautiful Bugs]

Keep in mind I do this with underwater inverts, however terrestrial inverts should be the roughly same.

[a.ojala]

I would think it would be harder to ship underwater stuff in freezing weather. Thanks for the info, I'll try your way.

Thanks

Austin

[Beautiful Bugs]

Glad to help. If you have any questions, ask and I'll try to help. heh It's actually great I'm able to help with something since I'm such a newbie at beetles!