Snail shipping temperature issues, help!

HI all, I wasn't really sure where to post this so hopefully someone will find it that has some advice.

I have my first two shipments of mystery snails with heat packs coming up and am having a bit of a possible issue with the temperature in my shipping box.... it occurred to me (at the last minute of course) to do a dry run before shipping them and here's where we are.

I have my box insulated with two layers of foam core and newspaper with a bag of air with a wet paper towel inside to mimic conditions. The heat pack is taped under the layers of foam that go on the top and there's a small hole poked in the box for oxygen. The box has spent the night in my unheated garage (temperature was between 40-45 degrees f all night) and the interior of the box won't get any warmer than around 62 degrees f, that was at its warmest yesterday evening.

I'm unsure of whether or not that's cooler than it should be to ship the snails since I have no idea if they'll end up in even colder conditions on their journey (one is headed to NY and they're expecting a cold snap over the next few days). Part of me thinks they'll be fine since I've shipped when it was that temperature outside but part of me worries that if they get much cooler than that the poor little guys will freeze and I'll never forgive myself :/

Anyone have any thoughts on this? Tyia.

 

Interesting that your reply contains the terms snail, ship, and new york, as two evenings ago I received 100 Bladder snails at my residence in upstate New York. They arrived sometime after 4:00pm and sat outside on the concrete in ~35F until 7:00am the following day. No heat pack or insulation, just in a USPS box. As I picked up the box I was cursing myself for not checking my doorstep before I slept. As I opened it I figured I would feed the dead ones right away (Bladder snails are used as feeders), and transfer the live ones to a holding tank. Lo and behold not a single dead snail!

I don't know how similar are the temp requirements of Bladder and Mystery snails, just thought I'd pass on this anecdote.

On another note, when I used to ship fish with heat packs I had more problems with overheating than with cold. Be careful and good luck!

 

If you're worried sick the box in your freezer for a while and see how the heat pack holds up

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Thanks guys. I'm just suspending my sales for a week for now. Going to try a bigger box with more insulation and maybe two heat packs. Last I checked the internal temp of my box was 52 degrees so something obviously isn't working right. ...

 

Idk if what you're shipping is as resilient as mts but I had some sitting outside in 27 degree weather for 3 or 4 hours before I tracked the package and saw it was here the water was close to freezing they shipped them in a cardboard box with only some newspaper as insulation and I didn't lose a single one

Sent from my SM-G360V using Fish Lore Aquarium Fish Forum mobile app

 

I know you care about each and every one of your babies so if you don't feel comfortable shipping them, then I don't blame you! I know you'd be worried sick for them during their transit so just do what you feel is best.

 

That's what I'm thinking, I know I'll be worried sick either way but I just don't feel comfortable shipping them in that temperature. Luckily fishlore people are very understanding so at least one of the people set to receive some said they'll wait until spring if need be.

We'll test a bigger box this week and see how it goes. I'm thinking I'll leave it in the garage for a night of testing the temp to make sure it doesn't get too cold and then leave it in my apartment for a day of testing (between 70 and 72 up here) to make sure it doesn't get too warm. Fingers crossed I can get this figured out, I feel like it really shouldn't be this hard, lol. :|