Hi Doobie, sorry I'm a bit late for the party. I buy the long life gents too, and have found them to be fantastic. I keep them in the fridge set at 4 degrees, and they have lasted for several months. When fishing I'll often leave them out of the esky yet have had no issues with the ones bought from a local tackle shop. The only time I have had them go bad was from a BCF store purchase, and I suspect the product was old as the substrate was dryish. Recently I've started "flavouring" maggots with tuna oil and other stuff, I use a separate container so as not to contaminate all of them. The one's