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A friend of mine has some H. majuscula nympsh available. My group is still growing and is months from producing nymphs, so if interested I have posted her info below as well as the current pricing if you prefer not to wait. Please contact directly at polkadot.exotics@gmail.com if interested in this species. Limited nymphs available.

L3: $16, 5 for $65
L4: $18, 5 for $70
L5: $20, 5 for $75
Sub adult male: $30

I have been going through all orders and shipping those I believe may be safe with insulation and ice packs, or being held at the post office for pickup. My weather here was at 100F the past couple of days and looks to drop down to around 90 on Tuesday (today), so I will get more packages out then. Express packages are for sure going out this week as that is typically safe. In this heat, ice packs tend to last about a day, so they will protect packages going out, but 2-4 days in shipping and by the time they reach your state they offer no protection. Please choose express shipping whenever possible. If you are close to Oregon (WA, CA, NV, ID) shipping is usually fine via priority. Again, I have not had many issues shipping anywhere via priority, but I can see it happening more and more with USPS delays and rising temps.

I will be looking into changing to a different carrier after this week so I can offer safer, more reliable choices.

Over the next couple of weeks the above species will be available. I try to put most things that are available (or will soon be available) below the most recent post. Some things are left out, such as bulk mantids, so if you are looking for larger groups of some species, you will need to click the link to the right for Bulk Mantids.

Available and soon to be available species listed below. Please add yourself to the waitlist if you wish to be notified when stock for that species is added.

I have been trying to figure out how to change shipping so that it is easier on myself as well as customers, and I have decided to go back to flat rate shipping that includes insulation and anything needed to keep live insects safe in transit.

I can’t bring myself to ship nymphs without insulation when I know it is needed so I often include it anyway. I also often see many responsible buyers choosing the insulated option when it isn’t necessary (still the safer choice though!). I have not worried too much about it in the past as my shipping prices normally allowed for a little wiggle room to cover those that did not purchase the insulated option when it was necessary. However, I am noticing far too many customers simply going with the cheapest option even with the increase in temperatures. This, coupled with the extra time in shipping due to USPS delays, is causing an increase in dead critters and hatched flies, and it’s taking a toll. Contacting dozens of customers weekly to suggest they pay extra for insulated is far too time consuming.

Rather than having to start enforcing my replacement policy and denying replacements where weather was extreme and no insulation was purchased (I have yet to ever enforce it), I will be buying the insulation and ice packs in bulk and charging a flat fee when live insects are purchased. The safety of the critters must come first. It is a larger cost for me up front, but it will allow me to include insulation on all orders when necessary and extra ice packs if needed as well (especially when feeders are ordered).

I know it sucks to have to pay a little more in shipping, but I assure you it is better than you receiving dead nymphs and paying shipping again for the replacements, which costs you twice the shipping amount and me twice the nymphs.

I want to thank everyone for their understanding and patience over the past few weeks with delays due to USPS shipping. I am still only shipping priority on Mondays and Tuesdays, and MAYBE Wednesdays if you are close to me. Otherwise, only express will ship on Wednesdays.

I still plan to ship the day after Memorial day, although traditionally USPS takes a little longer to ship during that time, so please be patient. I may end up holding some orders until the following week. Fly pupae will only remain pupae for so long in the mail, even if I include ice packs. The ice packs only stay frozen for MAYBE a day. It buys a little time with 2 or 3 day shipping, but 4 or 5 days is almost guaranteed to arrive with a bunch of flies instead of pupae. Please be prepared for that. I plan to post some video/picture instructions for those that are not familiar with how to work with hatched flies, or just would like to know how I deal with them.

Today I received notification that USPS priority mail estimated delivery times of 2 to 3 days is now 3 to 4 days. This has already been the case for several orders over the past couple of weeks although it has not caused too much of an issue except for house and bluebottle flies arriving hatched or non viable. It is not too common, but please let me know if you experience issues.

As a result of this, I have to switch to faster shipping from my suppliers. This should not impact you guys much as my prices for shipping and products will not be changed, just the time frame of shipments during the week. I will need to change the shipping of priority packages to only Monday and Tuesdays. Express and SOME priority (based on location) will still be shipped on Wednesdays. I know it sucks to have to wait for an order longer than expected, but this is necessary for the safe shipping of live insects.

This week shipping will be affected as I had planned to ship a large number of packages Wednesday. With this last minute change, I will not have time to get them out sooner. I apologize for the delays but I will only have time to ship packages Tuesday, and will save many of the Express and local-ish shipments for Wednesday so I can focus on getting as many priority shipped on time as I can. Any customers packages that must wait until next week will be notified. I appreciate your patience in this transition. It should only affect packages that were expected to go out this week.