Shipping FAQ
What days do you ship?
We ship our orders Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. During the cold winter months November – February we only ship Mondays and Tuesdays. We do not ship later in the week to avoid the risk of a delay, and animals being caught in the mailing system over the weekend.
How will my order be shipped?
All live animals are shipped exclusively through FedEx. Isopods and other invertebrates may be shipped 2day or overnight. Reptiles are shipped exclusively priority overnight. Some more sensitive species, like the rare Asian Cubaris, are shipped exclusively overnight.
Our dry goods products are shipped through USPS priority mail, which allows us to offer a lower shipping rate. This shipping service typically delivers in 3 to 5 business days.
Is there a Live Arrival Guarantee (LAG)?
Yes, we offer a LAG on all orders. In order to receive replacement or refund in event of dead animals, we require packages held at hub to be picked up within 24hours, and the customer to contact us within one hour with photos of the dead animals.
What is hold for pickup?
Hold for pickup means that the package was marked to be held at a FedEx location until the customer is able to pick it up. FedEx locations will typically hold packages for 5 days but for as long as 30. We recommend picking up the package within 24 hours of arrival.
Why wasn’t my package delivered to my door?
In the event of extreme temperatures, we mark packages hold for pickup for the animals’ safety.
The listing says a cup includes 10 animals. How big are they? Is it exactly 10? Will I get both males and females?
For all isopods, we pack a mix of sizes ranging from young sub adult to adult. We do not pack animals estimated to be less than 2-3 weeks old and avoid packing fully mature adults because they don’t tolerate shipping as well. For all orders, we add an overcount on animals in case of death due to stress from shipping. For example, for a 10ct we pack 13 animals, for a 25ct we pack 30 animals. We do not sex animals while packing, but statistically there should be an even ratio of both sexes.
In the case of reptiles, the listing is for the exact animal described, and we do not add additional animals to the box.
I can’t pick up my package. Can it be sent to my door, even if temperatures are high?
Yes, we do still offer door delivery, but this voids the LAG in events of extreme temperatures.
The concern with door delivery is if the package sits in the sun, it heats up rapidly and can kill the animals, but if someone is at the door to receive the animals directly this is typically not an issue. Please contact us directly at info@smug-bug.com if you would like door delivery.
Can you deliver to PO boxes?
Unfortunately, FedEx does not deliver to PO boxes. We can send dry goods to a PO box, but live animals cannot be. Instead, we can have live animal boxes held at a FedEx location for pickup if door delivery is not possible for you.
Do you ship to my state?
We ship to all US states except Hawaii due to their strict import laws. This does include Alaska, but shipping rates are a bit higher than the rest of the US. We do not ship to US territories, for example Puerto Rico.
Do you ship to my country?
We only send shipments over the US border legally. We currently work with licensed exporters to send animals and have shipped out to Canada and Germany successfully. We do not ship to additional countries, but if you have an exporter you are familiar with you can put us in contact with them, we are willing to ship to you. Fees for shipping animals over the border typically start at $200USD and there are additional taxation fees on top of that. We use the companies Reptiles Express International and Northern Lights Reptile as our preferred exporters and highly recommend them.