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@Insectguy

I apologize for the missing media. Mistakes happen and I'm sorry it had to happen to you. Is there any way you could edit your first post to include what you posted later about us covering the shipping and all duty/taxes on the media reshipment?

@warpdrive

Can you shoot me a PM or email with your full name. We like to solve messups like that with either refunds or store credit (depending on your preference with the now common practice of using money cards instead of credit cards). If we somehow didn't take care of you, I would like the chance to.

Regarding Mites...

Fear of grain mites is totally unwarranted. All fruit fly cultures will have grain mites to some degree. With proper care, the mites aren't a problem. If the culture isn't kept properly (or is shipped in unfavorable conditions) mites can quickly increase in numbers. Due to the age of our producing hydei cultures (17-21 days old), it isn't uncommon to see some grain mites in the cultures. We also offer younger cultures too (like other places offer).

The predatory mites are a completely different mite. In order to fend those guys off, we bleach our racks and bins weekly and remove all hydei cultures from our facility within 28 days and all melanogaster before they are 21 days old. We use mite paper under all our fruit fly cultures and never allow cultures from outside our facility to enter our facility.

We are the largest producer of 32 oz fruit fly cultures at between 1000-1200 cultures made every week. If we ever had a problem with fruit fly mites it would be disastrous and we can't take that risk.

We stand behind our products and our service (see examples above of us not only refunding the products, but the shipping as well). We ship out hundreds of boxes of fruit flies every week, so bad experiences are bound to happen.

THANK YOU to all that have posted positive feedback here and elsewhere on this forum. We really appreciate it.

 
Nothing but good to say about Josh, there ff mix is top notch and free shipping on $50+ orders, great deals!

 
I ordered from Josh's Frogs for the first time this week. I liked the selection on the website, and it had a really helpful instructional video for what I bought, so I was well-prepared when my order got here. I got some substrate, some moss, excelsior, and a springtail culture, which I haven't found elsewhere. So, thanks. I'll buy from Josh's Frogs again.

 
Purchased two D. Hydei cultures from Josh's Frogs and gave one away. The one I kept did have a lot of mites. And shortly after it arrived all of the FF died so I was originally kind of upset. Emailed him asking for my money back but they assured me that the mites were not dangerous to my pets or my household. They responded to the death of the FF by sending a care sheet.

After some research on mites I found that they are harmless. So I decided to give them a shot and if they produced again I would use them. If it did not produce I would have to play the email game again.

The culture is doing well and producing a ton of FF. And I have not seen any ill effect from the mites either. They did respond to my email in a timely manner also. However, they refused to refund any of my money.

I may purchase from them again. Not sure though. I mean grubs in my cereal won’t hurt me either, but if I found some in there I would expect a refund.

 
I bought some 32oz insect cups from Josh because his shipping . I don't know if there is a different supplier, but Josh's are not nearly as clear as the ones from MantisPlace.

 
i ordered 3 hydei cultures and all came dead in the mail -_- Very upset and disappointed! Never buying from Josh again... I have to wait til tomorrow to sort all this out...

 
No luck with Josh's Frogs.  Soupy cultures, maggots all over the box and packaging!  Ewwww.  Not a fly in sight.  They were accommodating and sent 4 new cultures with the same result.  Heat was not the issue, the medium is too loose!  Pours out!  They refunded me.  I'm sticking with Repashy and making my own.  My Repashy cultures just flourish!

 
NEVER, EVER.... EVERRRRRR....buy from this site! Ever. 

Thought I caught a super sweet deal on feeder crickets, $9.99 for a thousand crix. They made it here.. and within 3 days, ALL 1000 CRICKETS ARE DEAD?

Feeding them fresh greens ,apple, and potatos plus my bug room stays warm (76-80 degrees) there's no possible way ALL of them should have died in 3 days.

I will never use this site again, even if it became the last source of feeders. 

Josh'sfrogs.com is garbage. 

 
I was cleaning out my photo folder, and found the photos of the JoshsFrogs fruit fly container I bought, and thought I should include my feedback as well.

When I was restarting my fruit fly cultures awhile back I was only able to find flightless Hydei locally. So I ordered flightless Melanogaster online from a few places closest to my state to ensure I would have some soon for my new nymphs. Anyway with JoshsFrogs being just in the bordering state north of me in Michigan, I figured the flies would arrive alive, and the mites couldn't be that bad.

Well when I got my box with 2 day priority there was not a single fly in the container (dead or alive), the pupae were empty/dead, and only dead larvae/maggots. I though I'd give it a few days to see if anything would become of it. Sadly the only thing that did spring to life was lots of mites (the white spots/dust in the photos below). I kept it in a large sink surrounded by water for a week (to prevent the mites from spreading) to be sure but still no flies, and the mites got so bad in the container I had to abandon all hope and pitch it outside.

The FF container was shipped loose in the shipping box with a single sheet of packing paper (still flat not even wadded) inside with the order slip. Of course as the container was flopping around loose in the box it did not fair well in shipping even that close to me.

On a positive note when I took the below photos originally for required proof for a refund, I was issued a full refund with my shipping costs even in under 24 hours.

Just a note on the photos, they were taken the next day after the box arrived...

jfculture1.jpg


jfculture2.jpg


jfculture3.jpg


 
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The first time I ordered from Josh's Frogs I got several dry items in one shipment, which arrived on time & in great condition, no problems. However, the second order is where I ran into trouble. I ordered 3 plants and a hydei fruit fly culture but the post office delayed the Priority shipment a whole week. What I received was 3 extremely dead frost-bitten plants and a culture with a thick layer of mold, no live or dead flies, no pupae or maggots....just soupy/moldy medium. They immediately replaced the plants, which arrived healthy & alive but for the culture they told me to add water (to an already soupy medium) and wait a few days as it isn't uncommon for adult flies to die in the mail. I waited 6 days but the only thing the culture ever produced was more mold. They finally offered to replace it but I decided against a new culture after reading the reviews here & accepted store credit instead. Their customer service is pretty good, they seem to want to make things right but their cultures are probably best to avoid...stick to plants or dry supplies.

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A month ago I ordered some housefly pupae from Josh's Frogs, and non of the hatched. I gave up trying and pitched them in the end. On the other-hand, I got a live culture of hydei ffs from them back in March that's still going. I won't order pupae from the again!

 
I'm a skeptic's skeptic.  I made my first order from Josh's about 4 weeks ago (been raising mantids for 10 years).  Simple order:  1 producing container of gasters and Josh's own brand of media powder.

The gaster's came fresh, well-packed and thriving.  The media powder made a highly productive culture (have always relied on Repashy SuperFly).  Just about to order Hydei and possibly house flies.  I find, no matter which vendor I use for pupae, I'm always disappointed in the hatch. This is in no way a promotion (pro or con) for Josh's.  I call em as I see em.

Digger

 
I ordered a D. hydei fruit fly culture to use to start a fresh batch of cultures since I've been culturing the same bloodline for months. I received the culture, but for some reason there were no adults still living and the culture had few pupae. I waited a couple of weeks to let some hatch out and they did after a 2 week period... but a rather small population of adults. When I opened the culture most of those flew out! I contacted the help desk and after bouncing a couple of emails back and forth, I was offered a partial refund. I didn't agree, so customer service replaced the culture and shipped it rush via FedEx.  ☺️

It was explained to me that if a culture gets too warm during shipping, the next generation will develop the ability to fly... something I did not know. If there's a problem with the replacement culture, I'll drop the issue and just consider it a learning experience.

 
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Ordered a few plants, some black soldier fly larvae, and fly pupae. All arrive in good conditions. There was a heat pack but no insulation. Will update if fly pupae don’t hatch. 

 
I ordered crix and 2 ooths from josh’s frogs and all came in great condition. All 75 of the crickets were alive (I counted lol) and the ooths looked pretty good. The crix lasted me a few weeks but the ooths never did hatch, they molded out a few days later without me spritzing them. I’ll give them a 7/10.

 
Ordered some feeders from here. Got the package quickly and everything was as ordered. Would definitely order from them again!

 

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