Yeah that's too bad. I've had good luck with them in the past (double boxed with heat pack etc just as advertised). It's not good that you paid for overnight and got ground shipping as well. Hopefully they will get back to you tomorrow and make things right.
Glad to hear that enough crickets survived for a few feedings. Since many did not survive, these may not live long either. And Great Lakes hornworm is located in Michigan so they will ship according to their weather because it's cold there already, no need to worry. You can contact them with a phone call, you'll usually get Rob the owner who is very congenial + will answer your Q's. They have a great reputation, I've never received dead bugs from them.
I'll definitely do that then, if I need to. I didn't even think about a northern-based company adding the winter shipping by default, but it makes perfect sense. Pity they don't sell cleaner insects, cause I'd give them a test run with an order of those if I could.
So far, the survivors of the GC order seem to be handling okay. I threw in some water crystals and fresh baby carrots, and they swarmed them. There have been some extra die-offs, but I expected that. I'll probably do a second sorting later so I can clean out all the newly dead. Trying to keep their enclosure clean, because holy crap, crickets really do stink!
Yeah that's too bad. I've had good luck with them in the past (double boxed with heat pack etc just as advertised). It's not good that you paid for overnight and got ground shipping as well. Hopefully they will get back to you tomorrow and make things right.
They got a hold of me today, saying they'll send out a new package, and apologized for the inconvenience. We'll see how well the replacement shipment handles.
And Georgia crickets messed up, again. Seriously, their heat packs SUCK. Overnight express shipping, and it'd already run cold. Any decent shipping heat pack for animals should last at least 2 days. Also, this time they forgot to have it sent to the hub, so it was left sitting outside on my steps without my knowledge.
By some miracle, there are still some survivors again. I'll just hope it's enough to cover my initial losses.
For now, I can say that I absolutely cannot recommend Georgia Crickets, and they'd be better off not trying to offer any winter shipping at all.
If I need anything else, I'll be trying Great Lakes Hornworm next.
Ugh that's really frustrating! Their heat packs are basic and were always cold by the time they arrived for me too but the double packaging helped. Leaving them on the steps is no good though. Perhaps more will start to bounce back as they warm up.
What are your temps. outside and how long were the crix out there ? The reason that I ask is because crix can seem like they are dead and then come active again after an hour or so at room temp. If you haven't tossed them, put them in a plastic tote + wait to see if they revive.
What are your temps. outside and how long were the crix out there ? The reason that I ask is because crix can seem like they are dead and then come active again after an hour or so at room temp. If you haven't tossed them, put them in a plastic tote + wait to see if they revive.
They were out there in mid-30℉ weather for 2 1/2 hours, cause they didn't bother to ring the doorbell or anything when they dropped it off.
I didn't toss them though, I actually did toss them in the spare tote. I figure if some thaw out, they'll be able to hop onto the cardboard eggcrate, and I can put them in the main tote later. I'm just waiting to get home from work. It'll be a few more hours. Should be plenty of time to see which crickets will survive or not.
Edit: Seems like more have managed to survive, and just needed to thaw out. There's still a lot of dead. Either way, I think I've probably managed to recoup around what I ordered, so that's cool. I'm still not ordering from them again.