Neil A. Meister wrote:
Hi Julie,
Nice packing tips, thanks.
Anytime!
I use styrofoam boxes made for shipping seafood. Most of them are a good inch thick.
That's really good! Nice and thick.
I normally poke on pencil size hole in 4 sides and make a few cross ventilated holes in the cardboard outer.
I make about an 1/8" hole on one side, and this is made so it does not directly vent on the gex. Unless you are looking at a two-day ship the gex will have enough air, and, IMHO, cross vents will compromise cool/heat.
I give the gex a spritz of water in each container, but not enough to soak the papertowel.
Cool (!) deal. ;)
I usually put a layer of bubblewrap top and bottom of the box in case it gets flipped over.
I stay away from bubble wrap or anything plastic in heat. In winter and in lower temps I do use this. In heat, I wad up newspaper, not tightly, to layer the bottom so the gex are suspended enough to help them from impacts.
What type of cool pack do you use? Same kind you put in a cooler?
http://www.superiorenterprise.com/heatpacks.html - I use the 1lb gel packs in hot situations, the smaller ones for "hot on exit only" situation. The small ones are nice if your destination is not hot because they melt in a few hours after they have served their purpose.
One supplier ships to me in winter by making a liner of fibreglass insulation inside the styro and placing a heat pack outside the insulation but inside the styro. I wonder if just switching a cool pack for a heat pack would work?
I don't see why not.
Julie B.
Neil
Hi Neil,
I usually use newspaper (styrofoam retains heat more) and cool packs for hot weather packing. I would use a large cool pack as the destination is good and hot. Evaporative cooling works in your favor too, even if the cool pack melts before the gex get there.
What kind of boxes do you use? Pre-made styrofoam insert or put it together yourself? Pre-made inserts work better for these conditions. I have double-walled the thinner do it yourself kind, however, this is harder to make seal properly.
I would also dampen the gex's containers too, not too much though. It sucks to get gex from people that are packed in a soaked container. I'm sure the gex do not like the "dirty diaper" either! ;) I layer them up with blue shop towels (heavy duty paper towel) so they can feel secure and also are somewhat protected from impacts due to the curling up of the paper towels. For Uros and Phelsuma I like to put sphagnum peat moss (actually moss and not soil type stuff) on the very bottom of their containers and make sure that is moistened. Paper towel strips are then used in a curling manner and one strip is stuck in the lid that runs down so they can have something stable to hang onto/hide behind.
Julie Bergman http://www.geckoranch.com GGA lifetime member
Neil A. Meister wrote:
Hi All,
Does anyone have experience/tips for shipping geckos in hot weather? I've found a company that may be able to ship some animals to Daytona for me, but it will take 2 days given brokerage/inspection. I'm worried about heat in August. Being up North, I'm more used to dealing with cold.
Thanks, Neil
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