Bugs & Butterflies UK Reviews 

Last week, I placed an order with Bugs & Butterflies and paid £5.45 for shipping. I got a dispatch confirmation, but Royal Mail tracking still says “We’re expecting it” — meaning they never actually received the parcel. It’s been days with no delivery.

When I tried to contact the company, I only received an automatic reply saying:
"We are currently moving to a new site so please bear with us as we set up and settle in!"

I really wish I’d checked their Trustpilot reviews before ordering. Hopefully this helps others avoid the same mistake.

Scammers in my opinion.
Last year ordered mixture of caterpillars and eggs. Never arrived, have contacted them multiple times with no response whatsoever but constant advertising emails about how they have new stock and they're shipping out ect. Will stick to insectlore from now on. Absolutely bullsheet about kivimg locations and moving site, pretty sure this is some creepy old bloke plucking slugs eggs off bushes as he finds them

I ordered the Native Butterfly Mix last year when it was listed as available. Although I received an email stating the order was preparing for dispatch, it never arrived. The tracking number provided never showed any movement, raising concerns about whether the order was even sent.

After numerous emails, I was eventually informed the item was out of stock. I requested a refund, but was instead promised double the quantity would be sent the following year. That order, which should have arrived this year, has also not materialized.

Since then, the website has been redesigned, and my original order details have conveniently disappeared from my account. Fortunately, I kept all email correspondence and still have my order number.

I’ve since moved house and have reached out multiple times to update my address and inquire about the status of my order—without receiving a single response or acknowledgment.

Based on my experience, and the many similar reviews I’ve seen, I strongly advise against ordering from this business. If the owner wishes to resolve this issue, I would be happy to update my review accordingly.

Please! Please don't give this man your money.
As an ELG Member since 2010, used to receiving way better livestock, response times from multiple different strangers. At considerably lower prices.

In early August 2024 I had purchased Citheronia Splendens and hadn't received them. As some others had stated here, the excuse was ill health. Which i cannot believe he did not at least have another member of staff who had access to emails to respond to the 3 emails i sent within a 2 month period.
Finally i received an email in the January 2025 with the excuse, he offered me credit for all the value.

So I ordered 10 eggs of Saturnia Pyri, Had a fairly poor hatch rate of 40%. In mesh covered 5 inch wide pots, with a small amount of kitchen towel in 21C room temp.

~Honestly, i hate using time doing a hobby as a measure of efficacy.
(You can cook all your life and still be terrible at it).
But over a decade and a half of rearing ova to larvae successfully, i would say my methodology is sufficient~

When Citheronia Regalis 5x larvae appeared in my emails, i was fairly excited. Ordering those with my remaining credit. When receiving the order i received eggs but 3 extra "Free". I should have been contacted to ask permission to send me the ova instead of larvae.
No where in the T&C's does it say they reserve the right to send stock in different stages/descriptions.
I would liken this to ordering an assembled product and receiving it disassembled.

I understand fundamentally that sending live larvae has its own risks. At least if i was sent larvae i had been sent 100% what i asked for, even if some arrive dead, eggs are not guaranteed to hatch. As proven by the Saturnia, and the rest of this review

7/8 of the Citheronia eggs developed. 3 hatched, and then 3 days later, the larvae and eggs ceased to live.
(The eggs death were validated with a digital microscope)
Very much in one fell swoop. The 3 larvae were all kept in their own separate mesh lidded pot. In very controlled and clean conditions. With the only variable being the foodplant. Liquidambar from a rural location. not roadside and not near farmers fields. (which might i add wouldn't be a problem if they had sent me the larvae).
Which the ova were not exposed to. So there inconsecutive death probably is not able to be correlated tp the foodplant.

My supposition is that they probably lost all their larvae to this same disease (most likely genetic). Then tried compensating by sending potentially faulty livestock.
Which by their dodgy T&C's means that faulty livestock/fertility after the day of delivery are not subject to refunds.
Then sugar coat it with "freebies" even though I'm fairly sure at that price id normally receive 10 ova.
To further support this idea, at the time of purchasing, they said the larvae were the last of that Citheronia clutch.

Of course i have had no response to my long and very descriptive email. Which, if you read the T&C's says he reserves the right to give you ONLY credit if he fails to respond to emails by the end of the season/year.

Do not buy from Bugs and Butterflies UK.
This person is not customer oriented and certainly "feels" like a hobbyist that has struggled to transition into a business model.
I'm sorry to the business owner if your reading this, but you should have just done better.

AVOID AT ALL COST
I ordered a mix of butterfly's last year which didn't come. Emailed time and time again. This man eventually sent back an email, saying he was in ill health, needed to move butterfly location, needed a secretary to answer emais. So for the inconvenience he would double my order this year. Sent emails this year, which have gone unanswered again. I was stupid enough to order some which come out in the spring and again never received them.
I'm now seeing a pattern, this man sends emails / adverts still selling them online, to all the poor people like myself who didn't check out the reviews first.
If you think you can get your money back, don't bother, he clearly states no refunds just store credit. How this man is allowed to get away with this is beyond belief.

This is the third year I have waited for my Death Head Hawk moth eggs, and 18 months for my Scarlet Tigers. Two years ago, I was promised that my order would be doubled. This of course was a total lie. I guess I must have sent over 40 emails and received two or three replies with false promises.

No news from my order a year and a half ago, despite several courtesy reminders. Unprofessional seller, scam?

Appalling, and looking at the reviews, which I WISH I had looked at before ordering, I don't understand gow anyine is getting their orders at all. Does it depend on who is posting or answering emails that day? Are they truly not aware of all the paid for and not received and not repsonses situations? And the people who say 'excellent' - are they real? I am so angry with this company and their utterly crap and contemptuous service. They STILL have my money. I STILL have no product or answers.

DO NOT BUY FROM THIS MAN
I have been robbed . I ordered some moth cocoons for my sons birthday and they still havent arrived 9 months later. There’s no contact from him . He just takes your money . Read the comments on here it’s shocking!!
I wish I knew before.
Stay well clear!

Dreadful. Very late delivery in tiny plastic pot which I found impossible to open. Resorted to breaking it. Eggs so tiny. Some lost. No instructions. So disappointed. Am on Pension Credit so don't have money to burn.

I decided to use this company for the first time this year, and ordered nearly £50 of butterfly eggs from them.

Their communication has been appalling, and despite several emails asking for an update on my order they refuse to reply.

They have the most atrocious customer care, and I would advise anyone looking at buying from this company to avoid them and find another more reliable and customer friendly supplier.

They only get one star because I have to to write the review. I ordered the native mix for my kids for Easter with a season of April/May. I emailed the company multiple times to get a status of the order and have heard nothing in response. I finally reached out and asked for a refund since my purchase never arrived, and I still haven’t heard anything. 10/10 do not recommend. Some lessons are learned the hard way

Do not order from this company!!! Orders 18 eggs native mixed, all meant to eat the same food source, ad says if stock is low they may add in another species but they will all still eat the same food. Eggs arrived and as i have never seen these in egg form before did not realise there was an issue, eggs hatch and i instantly get their food, they crawl onto the plant, but don't eat it, still by the next morning they still have not eaten the food, so clearly not the species i was expecting. This was after i received a dispatch notice on the 20th May and emailed them a few days later asking what was going on as there was no update on the tracking and emailed them a second time a week after i received the dispatch notice, to which i received the eggs the following day. With both emails i never once received a response back from them. First and last time i will use this company, they clearly do not care what they send out. I now have one very disappointed daughter and am having to order from another company.

Sorry ,but this society is not good,and liar.

Because me first command to her,
I buy 10 pupae from Morpho Polyphemus (white Morpho),and I receved 10 pupae from Morpho peleides,(blue Morpho),.
Sorry a confusion is not possible.
And I write a email,not answer.

order pupa last year not recieved any they donot reply to my emails only say they have things i can buy not trusting them with any more of my money

**updates below**
Original review dated 29/05/25 z Communication is absolutely nil, the only way is by email and it's all over the website to not email more than once as emails are answered oldest to newest which would be fair but taking more than a week (as of 09/09/25 I still do not have a response to my email asking for an update on 26/05/25!!!) to reply to an email is ridiculous.
Last year I ordered in May and my delivery for natives mix eggs arrived in August (my error on this part I didn't read the delivery details fully), it took a week from dispatch to the eggs arriving, amazingly they all hatched the next day but then prompted died the day after.
This year I have ordered the same mix of 20 eggs back in February so it was plenty time for it to be an early summer project for my 7 year old son (supervised obviously), got an email saying my order has been dispatched on the 20th May, the tracking on Royal Mail is still saying we're expecting it 29th May. I've sent an email asking when I can expect it on Monday but I've not heard anything yet... now at the point I want to email and ask for a refund and I'll just order from Insect Lore instead! I was hoping to get different native species to teach my son a bit more about them... can't teach him when nothing arrives!?!
**update 01/07/25 - still not heard anything back from either email I sent, recieved my delivery or my refund back**
**update 22/07/25 - ordered arrived, checked the tracking and it appeared in Glasgow yesterday then delivered to me in Aberdeenshire today... when it states on it dispatched 25/05/25!! No clue if the eggs are even still viable as could have been sitting somewhere for 2 months or if they're fresh so guess we'll need to wait and see**
**update 09/09/25 eggs never hatched following the guidelines, ended up binning them after 6 weeks. Still not had a response to my initial email in May or the second one send in July asking for a refund. Horrendous experience from start to finish**

I paid for some DHHM eggs back at the beginning of March and despite 3 emails asking when they will be delivered I have not heard a thing. They were for a 40th birthday gift to my best friend. I feel like I have been scammed!!

18 months after ordering a native mix of 10 eggs, receiving credit to reorder this year after no show last year, I just received 4 eggs that feel like they've been cooked in the RM van in tma tiny airtight plastic tube stuck to a bit of paper. Wish me luck any of the half I paid for hatch. Also appear to be 5 attached eggs so doubt it's a mix either

Extremely disappointing experience. I pre-ordered 80 butterfly eggs back in January, and was later informed that only 50 eggs would be shipped. It's now been four weeks, and the tracking number still shows that the package hasn’t been received by the postal service. Despite contacting Bugs and Butterflies four times, I haven’t received a single response. It’s incredibly frustrating to be left waiting and hoping for something I was genuinely excited to share with my students as part of teaching them about the butterfly life cycle. I feel scammed and deeply let down by the lack of communication and delivery.

These reviews are accurate. This place is a scam. I ordered back in Feb and was told I would be expecting in 4 weeks. I received no responses and I’m definitely going to make a public review on my personal successful platform. Beyond disappointed and I feel bad for these baby caterpillars.
Also not to mention, I never received them. And they went “missing in the mail”.
Save your money and go somewhere else.