Buyers and Sellers Beware!

[R Thomas]

Beware what I hear you ask!

The simple answer is the colder weather.

I was unlucky enough today to receive a DOA spiderling that had been shipped to me two days ago by RMSD but was not delivered until today. As the seller had not used any additional heat source nor any insulation material the spiderling I imagine froze to death on the wet tissue it was shipped with in the depot.

This has depressed me as I blame myself now for ordering it last week when the weather was better but the seller was unable to ship till this week.

I would therefore ask you to make sure that if you mail order any tarantulas that you make sure that they ship with a heat mat of at least 24 hours duration and that you ask the seller to not ship if the weather forecast is poor.

Lets try to keep our purchases alive and if in any doubt do not order!

Best Regards

Richard

[conceicao andre]

This is the main reason that we only order t's in the summer.
In the winter we will try to get them personally, even if we have to do some kms by car and go to the country next door (i'm in Portugal)

[Jamie Cooper]

I got a Haplopelma lividum MM delivered today from the Spider Shop. I don't know how cold it was last night, but when unpacking him, I was a little concerned. He was very lethargic and showed absolutely no movement until about an hour ago. There was no heat pack used, but I have good faith in the Spider Shop. Their Facebook page often states delays in shipping T's due to cold weather during winter months. I might email them and let them know how much of a close call this one was though.

He is stunning, I will post some pics later on my H.lividum breeding thread

Jamie.

Edit: Just thrown out the packaging and found a used heat pack in the box! I'm not sure how I missed it. My mistake.

[R Thomas]

Hi Jamie,

In fact I had two spiders arrive yesterday from different suppliers. The first was as I said DOA (but had been delayed a day by the Royal Mail) and another that arrived that was pretty close to death in my opinion that had been shipped in a small pot with a ball of soggy wet earth. I am just as surprised it survived shipping having obviously been flung around the pot and probably been bounced on by the soil ball a few times. I saw it move a leg fractionally so put it straight in my sling enclosure and warmed it up a bit. About 30 mins later I decided to rehouse it into a pot with drier more airy coir and expecting it to still be lethargic picked the soil ball up at which time it shot up my arm and hid in a fold of my shirt. It took me about 10 mins to gently free it from my shirt sleeve and get it into its new home which it has already webbed over nicely - so alls well that ends well with that one.

On a side note if you want a laugh read the prohibited items that you cannot send in the post - some make great sense but others are downright odd. For example you can post a UK Lottery Ticket but you are prohibited from posting a non UK Lottery Ticket!

The mind boggles

Richard

[Jamie Cooper]

Fortunately I've never had a DOA. I bought 4 Avicularia minatrix juveniles back in February that were shipped from Germany that all arrived in good health. They were in transit for about 40 hours with the aid of a heat pack. The guy who sold me them assured me they would be fine and they were, although looking back I must admit I probably should have waited a few more weeks for the weather to pick up. They are very difficult Ts to come by which influenced my decision to buy them there and then.

That prohibited items list was highly amusing! Quite an eye opener too! While some of it is just common sense, (i.e drugs, explosives, etc) some things did surprised me! Oh well, we've both committed crimes of the Post Office! Better stay low for a while!

Jamie.

[Nicola Dolby]

There are special pads you can buy which contain crystals. when the pack they're in is opened the crystals react with the air and produce heat. they are good for 24 hours or so and go well if placed in a parcel near the spider's container. I believe Lee sells them

[Carole Dallison]

I must admit i had 2 Dwarf black tiger slings delivered last week from the spider shop. Wrapped snug as bugs (scuse the pun) with a heat pack. Both very lively. Im lucky though, I only live 30mins away from the spider shop if I really want another when its colder.

[Neill House]

I think a lot of people are on the ball regarding this, and use heat packs for internal UK postings. I don't, or haven't as of yet, ordered anything outside of the UK though, and with the weather as it is, I don't think I would. I haven't had a DOA yet.. and I certainly don't want one.

[Christian Elowsky]

Here in the US we have access to 40 hour heat packs which do not spike heat, but are low and slow. I also ship in 1.5" thick styrofoam boxes inside a cardboard box, which gives me more than enough protection for a day or two. Couple that with some bubble wrap around the containers, and I have never had a DOA from cold. I do not know what your laws/regulations are, but folks might want to talk to the reptile hobbyists about better heat packs. They're a larger group, and often have ideas or inventions we can swipe. I'm not above using someone's good ideas.

[R Thomas]

Here in the US we have access to 40 hour heat packs.

There are a lot of things in the US that we just dont seem to have cottoned onto in the UK. It amazed me to be able to buy dry ice from supermarkets in the USA for packaging frozen/chilled items for shipping. To me it was a brilliant idea for keeping cold stuff cold long term. I would have no idea where to get it in the UK but it definately would not be down the supermarket lol

As a buyer I do think it is the sellers responsibility to do all they can to get the spiderlings etc to the buyer in a reasonable state. The guy that shipped the DOA sling to me has not assisted me in anyway shape or form to even get my postage back from Royal Mail so I definately wont be buying from him again.

Richard

[Christian Elowsky]

Actually, I just ran across this article by Mike Lawliss on arachnoboards.

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=99930

I refuse to believe 40 hour heat packs are not available somewhere! But this technique seems to give 48 hours with a normal 24 hour heat pack.

[R Thomas]

I refuse to believe 40 hour heat packs are not available somewhere!

Hi Christian,

40 hour heat packs are available, as infact are 72 hour heat packs mail order.

Luckily in the UK the majority of our special delivery packages are delivered next day so 24 hour packs are sufficient. It is always the odd delayed delivery that would require a longer life pack.

Richard

p.s. After looking at that thread, and what appears to be minimal temperature differences between ambient and the temperature with the packs it would seem to me very important that you place your heatpack as close to the T during shipping. So far when I have had a delivery with a heatpack it is at the bottom of the box covered in polystyrene beads and the sling pots then put on top of the polystyrene beads and more thrown on top. So the right method would be polystyrene beads then heatpack and slings together and then more polystyrene beads on top IMHO.