Our policies

My Queen Arrived Without Brood or With Dead Workers

It's natural to feel concerned if your queen arrives without brood or if there are deceased workers. However, it's important to stay calm. Despite our best efforts to ship queens and colonies in safe boxes using speedy services, they can sometimes become stressed during transit. In such cases, queens may consume their brood or workers may perish. This is a natural behaviour; in the wild, queens or colonies may consume their brood and relocate to establish a new founding chamber in response to stress.

For Queens Without Brood:

• Settle your queen in her habitat, ensure she is kept at the correct temperature, and offer her a protein meal. This could be mealworm, roach or cricket, cut up. Its important to remove anything not eaten after 24 to 36 hours. She should start laying brood again within a few weeks.

• To reduce the likelihood of this happening, consider purchasing a colony that includes workers when possible.

If You Used TRACKED Service with LIVE ARRIVAL:

• You're covered under our 180-day fertility guarantee for your queen. This should reassure you that she is likely fine. Note that this guarantee does not apply to orders shipped via standard shipping.

For Colonies with Deceased Workers:

• If you used the tracked shipping option and your colony arrives with a number of deceased workers that reduces the worker count below what you purchased, please take clear photos from multiple angles and send them to us.

• We need to see that the security seal is still intact to process an adjustment for the worker count to the appropriate tier. No store credit will be issued or adjustment will be made if the security seal is not clearly visible or has been removed.

• This only applies to tracked live arrival guaranteed orders and does not apply to orders which use the standard shipping option.

We’re sorry to hear about this unfortunate situation. To help prevent this kind of risk in the future, we recommend using our TRACKED LIVE ARRIVAL service when shipping queens. This option offers greater protection for both the colony and you as the customer.

Benefits of TRACKED LIVE ARRIVAL SHIPPING:

• Next Day Service: In most cases, your queen or colony will arrive the next day, reducing stress during transit.

• Delivery Notifications: Receive a text and/or email with your delivery time, allowing you to track your shipment every step of the way.

• Live Arrival Guarantee: This service includes our live arrival guarantee, providing you with extra peace of mind.

• 12-Hour Guarantee: You also benefit from our 12-hour guarantee for additional assurance.

• Better Arrival Condition: The faster shipping service helps ensure your queen arrives more rested and in better overall condition.

**My Queen/Colony Has Been Delivered Within 12 Hours Using TRACKED LIVE ARRIVAL GUARANTEE Service (Previously the Happy Queen Guarantee)** Queens, as live animals, are excluded from the Distance Selling Regulations rights of return. However, we offer our Happy Queen Guarantee for added protection if you've used our tracked service. If you have any concerns about your queen or colony: **THIS GUARANTEE SECURES THE LIFE OF YOUR QUEEN IN TRANSIT AND IF SHE WAS TO DIE, THE GUARANTEE PROVIDES A REPLACEMENT OR STORE CREDIT.** **Important:** There is a security seal on the end of the test tube. Do not break this seal as doing so indicates your acceptance of the colony in its current condition. This seal allows us to verify that your colony is as it left us and matches our records and your certificate. **Please Note:** Only the queen's life is covered by this warranty. Worker count is an approximation and used to indicate the colony's developmental stage. Workers who do not survive the journey are not covered by the warranty although we will offer store credit against the bracket the delivered colony falls into. If there is a miscount in workers, we will provide store credit for the difference in value once you provide a clear video showing the workers and the intact security seal. **Your Guarantee is Valid If:** - You selected the LIVE ARRIVAL TRACKED service for shipping. - The security seal is intact. - You did not miss the delivery. If delivery is missed, the queen must be picked up on the same day delivery was attempted. - The queen was delivered to a physical address (not a virtual address). The guarantee ends once the queen reaches the first destination in the case of virtual addresses. - You contacted us within 12 hours of delivery if you have concerns about the queen's condition. - You have checked carefully (e.g., zoomed in on her to ensure she's not just cold from the journey). If her antennae are moving, she is fine. **What You Need to Do:** - Send us a clear video of your queen via our Website or through our Discord server help tickets. - Include a clear picture of the queen's tube and the security seal at the end. - If the queen did not survive, we will ask you to return her to us (at our cost). We will then send you a replacement. If we have no more of the species available, we will issue store credit to be used for a new queen of your choice. **Note:** The warranty is valid for 12 hours after delivery. After this period, we no longer offer a warranty on the queen or worker count differences. We may extend this warranty up to 7 days if concerns about the queen (not the worker count) are reported within the 12-hour window. We reserve the right to determine if an extension is warranted. This warranty does not provide cash (or card) refunds in the event of colony loss. It offers a replacement or store credit if a replacement is not viable.

Orders can be returned to us for various reasons, such as delivery refusal, an incorrect address, or issues with the delivery driver locating the address. In these cases, we have policies in place to handle returned ants:

Returned Ants Policy

• Store Credit Option: If your colony is returned to us at any point during its journey to you and the ants are still alive, we will issue store credit for the colony. This credit will be reduced by a £15 restocking fee, 5% transaction costs, and the cost of the original shipping. These fees cover the return charges set by the courier, transaction processing costs, and the extra care needed to settle the colony for resale.

• Reshipping Option: Alternatively, if you prefer to have the colony reshipped, we can do so if you repurchase the shipping. Please contact us to arrange this.

• No Store Credit for Deceased Colonies: If your colony is not alive upon return, no store credit will be issued.

• Low-Value Orders: If the value of your colony is less than £15 (including deceased colonies valued at £0), we will absorb the fee, as there is no store credit to be made, however should this happen again in the future the owed balance will be charged.

Queens with Concerns: If you have accepted delivery of your queen and it has been more than 12 hours since your LIVE ARRIVAL SERVICE delivery without notifying us of any concerns, we are unable to cover the worker count outside of this initial 12-hour window. However, if you have any concerns about your colony after this period, the best course of action is to complete our help form, which you can find here. This form allows you to provide us with all the necessary details and to upload pictures and videos, helping us understand and address your concerns effectively.

Queens Who Have Died: If your queen dies within 3 days of delivery and you used the tracked shipping service, we offer partial compensation. Provided you have maintained the correct environment for her:

• You may return the queen to us at your expense.

• We will issue store credit for 50% of her value.

• This applies only to queens kept in sealed test tubes.

• Please note that workers are not covered by this guarantee, and the compensation applies only to the queen's cost without workers.

If your colony is 4 days or more past delivery and you need advice, we're here to help. To make the process quicker and more efficient, please complete our help form. This allows us to gather all the necessary information upfront so we can assist you more effectively.

Returns Policy for Colonies 4 Days or More Past Delivery: We do not accept returns on colonies that have been with the customer for 4 days or more, as we are no longer able to control their conditions, food, quality, or habitat. Sometimes, despite our best efforts, queens may not survive.

Remember, keeping these delicate species can be a learning process. If this happens, try not to feel discouraged. We're here to help you identify potential causes and provide guidance to improve your success in the future.

Fertility Guarantee

FERTILITY GUARANTEE ONLY APPLIES TO CUSTOMERS WHO USED THE LIVE ARRIVAL SERVICE

We offer a 180-day fertility guarantee for fresh queens who have never had workers. If you suspect your queen is not fertile, we have a structured process to address this, provided the following conditions are met:

Eligibility Criteria:

• The queen must have been shipped using the tracked service, not standard shipping.

• It must be within 180 days since the purchase date.

• The queen must be alive.

• She was purchased as a fresh queen with brood (or marked as *SC, indicating a split from an inbreeding colony done in-house).

• She has never had workers or developed brood while in your care.

• You are the original purchaser of the colony directly from us.

Please note, if your queen was provided as part of a colony or has had workers, she was initially fertile. Environmental conditions outside of our control may have affected her fertility, which is not covered by our guarantee.

If Eligible, Follow These Steps:

1. Contact us at husbandry@antantics,wales with your order number and queen ID number.

2. We will send you a link to a form where you can provide details about how you have been keeping her.

3. Return your queen to us using a tracked shipping method.

4. We will keep your queen in our incubator for a minimum of 4 weeks.

5. We will maintain our feeding cycle and take pictures on the first and last day to monitor brood development.

If Your Queen Is Considered Infertile:

• If no brood develops during the incubation period, we will conclude she is not fertile. We will then replace your queen.

• If we have the same species in stock, we will provide a replacement (note that the worker count may vary from your original purchase). If no stock is available, we will issue store credit which can be used to purchase another species from our store.

If Your Queen Is Considered Fertile:

• If brood develops, we will send you an invoice for the return shipping so she can come back to you.

• We will provide details on the feeding routines, humidity, and temperatures we used so you can replicate these conditions at home and continue her progress.

Sadly these items are perishable and also not covered under the Distance Selling Regulations. But do not worry, your items will be sent quickly and fresh.

You can return any unused, new, non-perishable, and non-living items to us within 28 days of receipt for store credit or an exchange. Items must be returned at the buyer's expense to the following address: Ant Antics Ltd | Morgrug Cymru, Priory Street, Carmarthen, SA31 1LS **Return Conditions:** - Items must be in a new, unused condition, with all relevant components intact. They should be in a sealed state, suitable for resale. - Items purchased as part of a bundle must be returned as the entire bundle. We cannot accept partial bundle returns. - We cannot accept bundle returns that contain live animals. **Important Notes:** - If items are returned in a used or not-as-new condition, we reserve the right to retain the item until the return shipping is paid by the customer for us to send it back. - Store credit or exchanges will be processed within 3 to 5 days of receiving the return. Please note that store credit will exclude the original shipping cost, as the shipping service was utilised and charged even if you have changed your mind about the items.

If your non-perishable and non-living item develops a fault we would not expect within usual and careful use then please contact us ASAP where we can arrange a return for you. Faulty items will be repaired or replaced at our cost. Return shipping of faulty products is covered by Ant Antics Limited.

Typically we can accept returns for repair on a fault within 90 days of purchase.

As live animals are excluded from the distance selling regulations, we do not accept returns on queens or colonies. This policy is in place because their welfare and conditions are beyond our control once they leave us. If you wish to return your colony, we can happily accept them as an adoption back to us. No funds will transfer hands, however.