Phoenix Worm confusion

[Drogo]

I received a cup of 100 phoenix worms in the mail today, in a USPS cardboard envelope packaged with newspaper. I opened the cup and saw them squirming around and closed the lid. I took the cup and drove 20mins home from work, A/C blowing in the car because it is 110F degrees out right now. I ran into the supermarket for turnip greens and came back out within 5 minutes. When I got home, I opened the cup and none of the worms were moving. I checked online and read you have to let them "warm up" to room temp before they start moving, but it's been 2 hours at this point and there is no movement. What is going on?

The only thing I can thing of is if the car was too hot when I was buying the turnip greens but that was no more than 5 minutes, maybe even only 3 minutes. Plus, wouldn't 2 days in a postal truck, stuffed in an envelop be more of a heat endurance than a 3 minute parking lot run? I can't think of any other factors in the 30 minutes between seeing them move and not moving at all.

For the size of the worms, I think I could only get 3 feeding sessions out of the cup. For the same price, I could get 2 weeks worth of crickets. I'm a little frustrated in this purchase...

 

[Jp]

They aren't really tolerable of higher temps, some companies won't deliver when temps get high because of DOA's.

 

[Drogo]

Wouldn't 2 days in a postal truck, stuffed in an envelop be more of a heat endurance than a 3 minute parking lot run? They were fine when they arrived.

 

[drgnfly2265]

Not sure how, but they can survive the postal truck. Maybe it's not so hot in them like you think? When I ordered Reptiworms (same type at the pheonix worms) and had the post office hold them for me to pick up there they always survive the truck ride and were alive and wiggly when I picked them up. But when I had them delivered to my house and they were outside in the heat (in they shade) for 10 minutes they would die...

 

[Drogo]

well that must be what happened, that sucks. When I went into the store, I even covered up the cup with a jacked so there wouldn't be any direct sunlight on it. It says to store the cup at around 50 degrees. To be honest, I don't know how I would even do that here in Arizona. My apartment doesn't drop below like 75 and the fridge is TOO cold. Ah well, a learning experience. I will never buy those again. $30 down the drain.

 

[Jp]

I've had feeders die off the day after arrival when temps were higher. My supplier is somewhat local & I spend the same on gas as I would on shipping, so I just pick up.

 

[Drogo]

just an update, I opened the lid again after about 3 or 4 days and now some of them are moving again, ha. It's hard to tell if 75% of the worms in the cup are dead or are just still inactive. Very strange. It's alright, my trusty box of 500 crix should be here anyday now.

 

[Germ]

It says to store the cup at around 50 degrees. To be honest, I don't know how I would even do that here in Arizona. My apartment doesn't drop below like 75 and the fridge is TOO cold. Ah well, a learning experience.

This got my curiosity up, so I took my Temp Gun & took the temp of my fridge wall immediately upon opening the door, it read 45F, inside the Butter\Cheese compartment with the plastic door, in the Fridge Door, read 48F. You may be able to store them in the fridge.

 

[Josh]

As Germ said, if you're fridge isn't set too cold, you should be able to find a space in there that's *warm* enough for them...

 

[Drogo]

Hm, ok I'll try it. I'm guessing anytime I take them out of the fridge, I'll have to play the guessing game again... "are they dead or do they need a couple days to warm up again?"

 

[Aleena]

Hm, ok I'll try it. I'm guessing anytime I take them out of the fridge, I'll have to play the guessing game again... "are they dead or do they need a couple days to warm up again?"

I'm sure they'll get active after being under a heat lamp for a minute, but that's just a guess. Same way with wax worms.

 

[Drogo]

Ok thanks. I originally tried placing the whole cup under the heat lamp but I got paranoid that I was baking them so I removed em. My cricket shipment just arrived last night so he's got plenty of munchies for right now.

I think I'm going to shoot a time lapse video of my crickets destroying a stalk of turnip greens. I threw a big chunk in there last night and was surprised to see how fast 500 crickets made it disappear. Could be interesting to watch sped up.

 

[drgnfly2265]

I read somewhere that the best place to store them is a wine cooler. Not sure how many people have one, but I'm not one of them, lol