[…] the boxes look fragile (they’re not really) and “perishable” from all angles!
It’s not easy packaging bugs, but we’ve gotten really good at it over the years. It boils down to understanding the bugs’ requirements, preferred conditions, tolerances, and durability. Then taking into consideration the destination, transit route, weather and temps along the way, and time of year. We then have to understand the materials we’re working with and how they mitigate the pitfalls we face. And since we try to contain costs, we must of course give them due consideration as well. All these factors in concert determine how we pack. We’ll break it down more.
Groupings and Stratification
We find that our good bugs can pretty much be broken into two groups. Some bugs like it cold and survive transit best that way, others like it cool. Either group will survive warm transit conditions, but only for limited periods. What the bugs like best to begin with, and how long and how much difference they can put up with are the main variables from one species to the next. When we pack we try to keep these groups separated a bit and with their own kind. That’s mostly do to internal stratification within the containers.
Heat rises and the cold settles. This is stratification and even occurs within the shipping container even though the space is confined. The cold source (ice pack) can be placed on the bottom with a cold-preferring species, or it may be directly overhead if all of the species contained like it cold. It really depends on what’s shipping with what. The embedded example image shows one cold item with the ice pack on the bottom, close but separated to prevent condensation, and a cool item above the ice. There is shredded paper filler in the void in the image, but could be yet another organism, the one least tolerant of the coolness.
Materials
In the image we show some of the materials we use, but not all. We sometimes get our hands on other temporary access items to use as filler, pieces of broken styrofoam, from other boxes and consumer goods is one such example, but we mostly use the following:
- Foam Boxes
- We don’t like using them, and they’re super expensive, but they are the best bang for the buck in thermal and physical protection during shipping. We have explored other options, but keep coming back to styrofoam. We do like to re-use boxes whenever we can but need help from others to do it.
- Ice Packs
- Frozen they keep our bugs cold/cool all night. Refrigerated or at room temperature they serve as a heat sink preventing freezing. This is useful in the winter. We never expect an icepack to be frozen when our customers get them. They can even be warm by that time during the hot months as they soak up heat. The main idea is to help get them through the night and to then buffer temperatures until delivered the next day.
- Bubble Wrap
- We use this to help prevent condensation and physical jostling. We use the small bubble wrap and are always ready to reuse this product when we can get our hands on some. We’ve tried other products with similar qualities, but they lack the air channels. We think this is the best stuff for the money.
- Shredded Paper
- This is junk mail in its most useful form. Everyone at The Green Spot shreds their personal junk mail. To that we add the business junk mail. That’s it. It’s difficult to imagine but the volume is so great that we regularly have enough “shreds” to sustain 100% of our package filler needs. The shreds absorb moisture and are an okay insulator so it’s win-win.
- Packing Peanuts
- We’ve never purchased them, but for years we’ve occasionally gotten a bag or two from the UNH Microscopy Lab. When that happens we will use them as filler. Resuse is the best option. If we didn’t take them they might end up being put someplace worse such as a landfill. Biodegradable starch-based packing peanuts don’t work for us. They melt.
We try to reuse materials whenever possible for environmental as well as financial reasons. We cannot commit exclusively on environmentally-friendly solutions because the critical nature of our products must be a priority. We do ship our IPM goods and books in corrugated boxes, and whatever else we can, but the bugs are unlike anything else in the world as it concerns their needs.
Special Challenges
There are certain circumstances that require special consideration at the very least. Some require action. Others are completely out of our hands. For example.
Cold to Warm
During the winter months the ideal shipping model is flipped upside down for us if we have to ship to the south as we’re in a northern tier state and are thus shipping from a cold location to a warmer one. Our ice packs stay colder longer so the destination point is fine typically, but we don’t want to start too cold and have to compromise a bit, often adding a room-temperature ice pack well away from the frozen one.
Intra-Box Environment
We learned long ago, if we’re shipping a fair number of Hypoaspis miles with Aphidius matricariae (shipped as live adults), the A. matricariae can suffer and even die. The mites apparently expel enough carbon dioxide — we think that’s the cause of the issue — they can cause hypoxia (oxygen starvation).
The solution in this case isn’t very difficult. We simply cap fully the A. matricariae bottles — we used to bag them. They actually have enough air in the bottle due to all the flying space. Cold helps keep respiration levels low. H. miles, though, because of their mass, can actually generate heat. A lot depends on the numbers involved. We treat each case individually.
Handling in Transit
We know what the boxes go through. We know in our heart that if were to literally watch them as they move on conveyor belts and get ejected into side chutes we’d cringe each and every time. To prevent this handling from becoming a problem to our bugs we package so nothing moves around. If the contents are well secured we don’t seem to have a problem. To understand why, think of dropping an insect from shoulder height. That size, if a person, dropped from that relative distance (100+ feet)… well, splat. But the world is different to bugs. The fall is no problem, so some jostling in transit doesn’t cause them too much grief, provided the bottles don’t start crashing together.
Another concern, one even more important, is the orientation of our containers. Our clever use of natural stratification goes out the window if the box is turned on its side or upside-down. During processing, though, the shipper wants the box upright because that’s where we put the label. On the “front” of the box we put a large lime green perishable sticker. This does little, but we do try everything in our power to help ensure our boxes are treated right. One of the biggest positives as it concerns this facet of shipping live bugs is that because we ship in foam boxes, the boxes look fragile (they’re not really) and “perishable” from all angles! That’s a good thing and we happily acknowledge that psychological influence and the impact it has as it concerns our boxes.
Variables
There are many, many variables to our shipping procedures and each package is treated as if it is exclusive because often times it is. This article, though, will give you the science behind our techniques so your general understanding of packing and shipping good bugs is hopefully greater.
