Vadis isn’t the only bug seller who’s adopted containerized shipping. But he claims his paper-fiberboard invention guarantees the crickets a longer, more comfortable life than the plastics coming into the market elsewhere, since it wicks away moisture from the insects. The system enables reptile owners to simply punch open a tab to open the box and shake out as many crickets as needed. Or an owner can place the box in a pet’s cage, where the resident bearded dragon or other cricket-eating creature can hunt the crickets as appetite, and Darwinian behavior, dictate.
The Bug Box (selling at $2.50) more than doubles the cost to pet stores of the crickets inside, from about 1.5 cents each to about 4 cents, but customers don’t seem to mind. Vadis’s company even has some venture capital aimed at taking the boxes to national pet chains. And why not? Vadis seems to prove that old marketing chestnut: it’s all in the packaging.
