Alive on arrival,
or you get a new one.

Pick the speed that matches your tolerance for risk. Priority Overnight is the only service the Live Arrival Guarantee applies to, and it covers mantises and isopods, never cultures.

2-Day is never covered: no replacement or refund if it arrives dead. Carts with only cultures or supplies ship Ground unless you upgrade at checkout.

If your mantis or isopods arrive dead, we send a replacement, or refund the animal's price if we can't restock soon. Late, lost or misdelivered boxes are outside the guarantee, but message us and we'll look at it case by case. The guarantee is strict because live shipping is unforgiving. Every condition below must be true.

• Order shipped Priority Overnight — no slower service qualifies. 2-Day is never covered, at any temperature. Held-for-pickup orders are covered: it's the same overnight service, just routed to a staffed counter.
• If your order is held for pickup: collected the same day the carrier marks it ready, by that location's closing time (if it's marked ready after the counter has closed, by closing time the next day it's open). Two clocks run here and only the short one is ours — FedEx will physically hold the parcel about 7 days, but our guarantee ends when the counter closes that day.
• Package opened the same day it's delivered, on the first delivery attempt.
• A continuous, unedited unboxing video from the sealed box to the mantis itself.
• Claim reported within 24 hours of unboxing with that video (photos help).
• The video is the original, unedited file — straight off your phone or camera, not trimmed, cropped, screen-recorded, or re-exported. Editing strips the metadata we verify the claim with.

We pre-check your destination ZIP's forecast for the day your box arrives (for Ground, every day it's on the way). If it crosses a threshold, the route changes, not the ship day: in heat, overnight orders are re-routed to Hold at Carrier Location; in cold, we recommend Hold at Carrier Location too (the first option at checkout), and door delivery gets a free heat pack. When the forecast high is above 85°F, we add a free ice pack, counter-pickup routes included. Extreme temperatures alone don't hold your order. Only severe weather or a carrier alert does — then we hold the order, email you, and ship on the next safe ship day.

When a doorstep delivery falls into a temperature concern, we re-route the order to Hold at Carrier Location so the animal is never left in an unattended mailbox or on a hot or cold porch. In cold weather, door delivery stays available if you prefer it, with a free heat pack at no extra charge.

We ship to the 48 contiguous states. Hawaii and the US territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, US Virgin Islands) are off the list entirely. Alaska and Florida have per-item limits that checkout applies:

International orders are not supported. We're working on Canada — join the Discord for updates.

In the valley? At checkout you'll automatically see local options no one else gets — no weather hold, no carrier, climate-controlled the whole way. Full details on the Las Vegas local page.

Pickup appears for valley addresses, delivery for addresses within 5 miles of the pickup point. Everyone else sees standard carrier service.

When the forecast for your delivery day crosses a temperature threshold, checkout offers Hold at Location automatically: your order ships to the nearest staffed carrier location to wait for your ID instead of your porch.

• Same overnight speed, full LAG still applies.
• No porch piracy, no missed delivery, no box baking in the sun.
• Collect it the day it lands: the guarantee runs on the counter's clock, not FedEx's 7-day hold — see the two clocks under the Live Arrival Guarantee.

It isn't a standalone add-on in normal weather — it appears at checkout when the forecast calls for it.

Carts that total $300 or more automatically qualify for free Priority Overnight at checkout, and mantises and isopods keep full LAG.

At $300+, 2-Day drops off the list: Overnight costs the same and gets there sooner. We never downgrade a free-shipping order to a slower speed without telling you.

Bring the package indoors immediately and open the outer box promptly in a draft-free room, filming continuously from the sealed box onward. Once you've confirmed the mantis is alive, move it into its enclosure whenever you're ready: tip the cup, let it walk out on its own, and don't grab it.

Offer a correctly sized prey item whenever you're ready. A mantis that refuses food for a day or two after transit is normal: remove the uneaten prey and try again in a day. Handling is fine from day one; just leave it alone around a molt. Full first-day steps are in the shipping & arrival care guide.