Summer is the busiest season for beneficial insects, and for good reason. Pest pressure peaks when temperatures climb, and growers need their biocontrol products to work fast. But summer shipping comes with some questions we hear regularly: Why are there mites on the outside of the sachet box? The ice pack has melted. Is my product ruined?
Here's what's actually happening, and why your order is almost certainly fine.
Your Predatory Mites Are Moving — That's a Good Sign
When you open your order in July and notice the mites are significantly more active than they were in March, that's not a problem. That's biology doing exactly what it's supposed to.
Predatory mites are ectotherms; their body temperature and metabolic rate are directly tied to the environment around them. At cooler temperatures, mites move slowly and conserve energy. In summer temperatures, their activity increases considerably. You may notice mites crawling rapidly across the sachet, clustering near the opening, or dispersing quickly around the box upon arrival. This is normal, healthy behavior.
The Ice Pack Has Melted — Is My Product Still Good?
Almost certainly, yes.
The ice packs included in summer shipments are not designed to keep your products frozen or even refrigerator-cold throughout the entire journey. That's not their job. They're designed to act as a slow thermal buffer, absorbing heat gradually over the course of shipping and keeping the internal temperature of the package meaningfully lower than the air temperature outside.
Think of it like a cooler on a road trip. By the time you reach your destination, the ice is gone, but your drinks are still cool because the ice did its job over time. A melted ice pack is evidence that the system worked, not that it failed.
Biological products like entomopathogenic nematodes, parasitic wasps, and other beneficial insects are far more resilient than most people expect. They are living organisms adapted to survive temperature fluctuations. What they can't survive is sustained, excessive heat, which is exactly what the ice pack and insulated packaging are designed to prevent.
The Buffer Packaging — Your Product's Second Line of Defense
In addition to ice packs, summer shipments include gel buffer packs, similar to the cold packs you'd find in a grocery delivery or meal kit box. These work alongside the ice packs but serve a slightly different purpose.
Where the ice pack cools actively as it melts, the gel packs absorb and hold the temperature fluctuation from outside the package, acting as a thermal barrier between the warm exterior environment and your products inside. Because gel takes longer to change temperature than air does, it effectively slows the rate at which outside heat reaches your beneficials, whether that's inside a delivery vehicle, at a distribution centre, or sitting on your doorstep in the afternoon sun.
Even after the ice pack has fully melted, the gel packs are still doing their job; buffering your products from the surrounding temperature and buying time until the package is in your hands.
Together, the ice pack and gel buffer packs work as a system: one actively manages temperature during transit; the other keeps the environment inside the box stable for as long as possible after the ice is gone.
A Few Tips for Summer Orders
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Track your shipment and try to be available when it arrives. The less time the package spends on a hot doorstep, the better.
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If you can’t be there when it arrives and are concerned about it sitting on your front porch in the hot sun, you can always send the product to a Hold for Pick Up location via Purolator or UPS.
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Open immediately upon arrival and inspect your products. If anything looks genuinely concerning, contact us; we're here to help.
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Apply as soon as possible. Beneficial insects are not shelf-stable. Same-day application after receipt is ideal.
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Store briefly in a cool location if you can't apply immediately. Store in a basement or air-conditioned room, away from direct sunlight.
A Final Note on Our Packaging
The ice pack and gel buffer amounts included in every summer shipment aren't guesswork. Koppert Canada has invested significant time and effort into product-specific trials to determine the exact combination of cooling and buffering needed for each biological product to arrive in good condition — accounting for typical transit times, seasonal temperatures, and the unique requirements of each living organism we ship. When your order leaves our facility, it's packaged with precision.
