shipping roaches?

[codykrr]

ok well this is going to be a first for me. i am needing to ship 150 B. dubia roaches, but im not sure how to do it exactly...ive shipped plenty of spiders but not sure how to do the roaches. so how do you do it? thank you.

 

[samatwwe]

I only did it once and it was my first time shipping anything live, so it cant be too hard! LOL I shipped 350 blaberus spp. in like 4 lg deli cups. I think I just put crumpled paper towels in each deli and a few pieces of fresh cut carrot and they arrived fine.

 

[jmiller]

I would suggest that you ship in a box and not in plastic. The boxes breath much better. Make sure you have any climbing surface (egg flat or newspaper, etc.) secure so it does not move when the box is tipped upside down. Put a small piece of carrot or whatever you have for moisture and ship em out. If temps are going to go below freezing use a heat pack. No need for air holes or anything fancy. The method has work for me hundreds of times.

 

[codykrr]

well i managed to do it. i just insulated the box with foam, and put them into an old cheese cake container from wal mart. i belive they will be fine.

 

[Louise E. Rothstein]

Foam insulation may not suffocate your roaches if it doesn't "outgass" formaldehyde or similar...since some kinds HAVE I consider either uncolored cardboard discards or unscented packing paper to be considerably safer.

Even if your shipping container is chemical free it must "breathe" because airtight material(s) can become lethal in transit.

Although cardboard does "breathe" it is not escape proof.
I use plastic shipping cups whose finely perforated lids let air in without permitting possible newborn nymphs to escape in transit.

Good luck!!!

 

[Smitty78]

I use the large priority flat rate boxes from USPS with 4 egg flats inside. I just make sure to tape up the inside and outside box seams very well and I have yet to have any issues.