Can I order supplies and live animals in the same order?
To ensure the safety of the animals and to fascilitate a streamlined automated checkout process we do not allow animals and supplies to be purchased in the same order and shipped in the same box. That being said, you can fill out our support form and we may be able to bill you with a custom invoice outside of our automated checkout process if we deem your request to ship animals and supplies in the same box possible.
Where do you ship to?
Currently we only ship to states in the US and we do not have plans to expand to other countries at this time.
When will my order ship?
Supply orders will typically ship within 3-4 business days of the order being placed. Live animal orders placed after noon CST Sunday will not ship until Monday or Tuesday of the next week. Orders placed before noon CST on Sunday will always ship Monday or Tuesday of the same week. We only ship live animals on Mondays and Tuesdays to ensure the fastest shipping times for the safety of the animals. The noon Sunday cutoff is to allow for adequate order prep time.
​
In certain cases a notice will be posted in advance on the main shop page and/or throughout the checkout process informing of a delay in shipping due to holidays, extreme weather, expected USPS shipping delays, personal events, etc. Other times an email will be sent out informing of an unexpected delay effecting already placed orders, so if your order seems to be delayed please check your inbox and spam for an email from ryne@springtails.us before personally reaching out to ask. In these rare cases your order will ship in accordance to the specifics of the checkout or email notices.
Returns, refunds, Live Arrival Guarantee, and hold for pickup
LAG (Live Arrival Guarantee):
Deaths in a Springtails US order are extremely rare due to our careful packaging with insulated boxes and a range of temperature controlling packs but they can still occur. Read below how orders experiencing deaths can be eligible for refund or replacement, and scroll to the bottom of this section for contact information.
- Must contact us within 2 hours of the delivery time posted by the carrier service and provide photo or video proof if you want a return or replacement due to DOA (Dead On Arrival). Orders which are held for pickup at a post office have an extended 24hr LAG. If you experience a DOA please reach out even if you haven't made the time limit and perhaps we can work something out. We understand that excessive deaths during shipment are not always the customer's fault so we'll offer exceptions in certain cases. Always feel free to contact us!
​
-Orders which have been in transit for 10 or more days due to postal delays can be replaced or refunded. In these instances if the package is delivered and the animals are DOA it is never the fault of the buyer. Please reach out if your order is experiencing a delay in transit or if your delayed order arrives DOA. Infrequently orders will spend 5-9 days in shipping but will almost always still arrive alive because of our careful packaging; please wait the full 10 days or for a DOA to occur before reaching out.
​
-Isopod orders will be automatically sent to your specified USPS post office address, or the nearest one to you if no address is specified, if forecasted low temperatures are below 45F or forecasted highs above 80F. If you cannot get to a post office to pick up your animals please reach out to us before ordering and we'll do our best to accommodate. Most isopods are more sensitive to temperature swings than springtails hence these Hold For Pickup requirements only for orders containing isopods.
-Any order can be sent to a post office instead of your home if you specify an address in the order comments field at the final page of the checkout.
- Once we have confirmed that the DOA is within our return/refund policy we will offer a full refund or a reshipment of the order on the following Monday/Tuesday.
All other products:
​
-Product returns are done on a case-to-case basis. We will need a reason provided to help us understand the nature of the return/refund for the product.
​
Please reach out to ryne@springtails.us for all inquiries regarding DOAs, refunds, returns, and reshipments.
​
Springtail Shipping Methods
Large counts of springtails may ship in only one cup. For example a 100ct or 500ct of Folsomia candida will still ship in only one cup. Very large counts will be split into multiple cups. If you would like your springtails split into multiple shipping cups please specify that in the order comments section of the checkout process.
We use three shipping methods for springtails:
-Paper towel in 2 or 4oz cups
-Clay in 8oz cups
-Soil in 2 or 4oz cups (currently only used for A. caecus)
-We use paper towel for species that we suggest culturing on soil. We use paper towel because it is a secure and clean way to safely ship springtails which we transfer from soil into these shipping cups. They can survive on the paper towel for a week or more. To get the springtails off of the towel and into the culture you can either put the whole thing into their new culture and wait for them to get off or unfold the paper towel and gently knock them off and into the soil.
-We use clay for the species which we suggest culturing on clay and which handle shipping on clay well. You can keep these springtails in their clay lined shipping cups and continue culturing them in there or tap them out into a new culture.
-We use soil to ship Arrhopalites caecus because soil is what we culture them on and being a soil dwelling species they handle shipping in it quite well. To transfer them from their shipping cup you can simply dump them soil and all into their new culture. They culture best on soil but we suggest trying clay as well once you have a good soil master culture going. We do culture them on clay as well but shifted away from shipping them on it because people were struggling to keep them alive on clay.
Isopod Shipping Methods
Isopods ship in ventilated cups with damp sphagnum moss and leaf litter to keep them fed. Large counts of isopods may ship in only one cup. For example a 10ct or 100ct of Porcellionides pruinosus will still ship in only one cup. Very large counts will be split into multiple cups. If you would like your isopods split into multiple shipping cups please specify that in the order comments section of the checkout process.