Enclosure cleaning solution?

[Lumina]

What is the best cleaning solution to use for cleaning the inside of enclosures? I just recently inherited several Ts whose owners did not do a great job with maintenance. The enclosures are in pretty terrible condition so I'll be needing to clean them out asap. What do you guys use for cleaning? Just soap and water? Or are there any other solutions that would be better (and safe of course).

 

[antinous]

Warm water has worked for me, nothing else.

 

[lostbrane]

I tend to use Dawn for some of the more stubborn cleaning jobs, and then rinse out the enclosure thoroughly. However, warm/hot water should do just fine.

 

[Theneil]

If it is juat an empty enclosure i usually use water and will use vinegar for any mineral build up and water spots. after vinegar it gets thouroughly cleaned again with water until there is no smell of the vinegar and it is allowed to dry completely before use.

If the inhabitant is still inside during cleaning. Water and mechanical force only.

 

[WildSpider]

I mostly just use water and a paper towel when doing a basic cleaning for my T's enclosure.

Edit:
Removed the potentially harmful idea from my post.

 

[boina]

I mostly just use water and a paper towel when doing a basic cleaning for my T's enclosure.

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I'm not sure whether I should really include this next part but I will as I'm guessing some of you may never have heard of Oxine and might find it helpful for your other pets if not your inverts.

For my true spiders only (I haven't tried it with my T):

I will do the regular water and paper towel spot cleaning but when I want to combat bacteria, viruses, etc. I use something called Oxine. Please note that I do not activate the Oxine. It is used for organic farming I believe and is harmless enough inactivated but once it is activated, you need to be very careful with it as it can be dangerous if not used properly.

From memory, I believe I use 5mL oxine/28 fl. oz. water. This has carried over from my other animal hobbies as I have found it very effective.

I do spray my mammals as well as my frogs with this solution to prevent/control illnesses. I believe it is best not to spray inverts with this solution though. Although I have seen yellow jackets drink from my cat's water dish, it is a lot lower concentration (2 or 3 drops for a large bowl). It is best not to risk it. I just spritz the enclosure with this solution and hit it with a paper towel.



I've been using it with my true spiders since I started the hobby over a year ago and I haven't experienced any problems.

We have also been using a pricier version of Oxine as a mouthwash for years, called Oxyfresh. Now we just use the regular Oxine as it's much less expensive.

You should research this more if you do consider using it. There's a lot more information that I didn't include here.

I think this is a really terrible idea. I don't know where this bacteria phobia stems from that induces people to kill every bacteria in sight and even spray a really aggressive disinfectant on frogs or put it into a cats water dish!! A cat may survive that but it will certainly not benefit from it. It will not only kill bacteria, but also any cell alive. This is not a bacteriocide, but a biocide, meaning it is able to kill any cell at all! In fact it may induce mouth cancer in cats since this solution produces highly aggressive radicals. Please, do not do that! You've been tricked by aggressive marketing to use something that is highly dangerous and may seriously harm your pets!

Bacteria are important and beneficial! Mammals and humans and frogs and basically every animal really, really need bacteria on their skin to fight off pathogenic bacteria and skin infections. You are systematically destroying the natural defenses these animals have against pathogens, replacing them with something highly aggressive and dangerous. There is this experiment sometimes done in dermatology classes, where you put your unwashed hand in a solution of E. coli bacteria and then place your hand on an agar plate. Nearly nothing will grow since your hand has enough natural bacteria to fight off the E. coli. If you wash your hand and do the same the E. coli run rampant.

Again: Bacteria are important! It's like springtails in a spider enclosure: a poplulation of beneficial bacteria on skin or in your environment is your very best defense against pathogenic bacteria. And you should never, ever put a biocidal disinfectant in any animals drinking water or spray it on it's skin, not even in low concentration. I'm really aghast anyone would do that.

 

[The Grym Reaper]

I don't know where this bacteria phobia stems from that induces people to kill every bacteria in sight

I've never understood it myself either and I'm pretty sure it's one of the reasons that people have such heinously crap immune systems nowadays.

 

[draconisj4]

I just use hot water to clean enclosures and water dishes. I do use dish soap and rinse very well on new sterilite enclosures because they feel oily and I assume it's some kind of manufacturing residue.

 

[Lumina]

This is going to be more of a pain than I had anticipated. The poor things have mites in their enclosures too... Sigh.

 

[Teal]

I've never understood it myself either and I'm pretty sure it's one of the reasons that people have such heinously crap immune systems nowadays.

It absolutely is! I remember the pediatrician when I had my first child applauding me for letting him "be a kid" - playing outside in the dirt with animals, etc - because it builds a healthy immune system. He said the babies that are always sick are the ones whose parents are constantly trying to sterilize their environment.

This is going to be more of a pain than I had anticipated. The poor things have mites in their enclosures too... Sigh.

Mites are friends, NOT FOES. They are trying to help clean things up.

I would just clear out the enclosures and start over, because that sub isn't goof anyways.

I use water and vinegar, if needed.

 

[Ungoliant]

What is the best cleaning solution to use for cleaning the inside of enclosures? I just recently inherited several Ts whose owners did not do a great job with maintenance. The enclosures are in pretty terrible condition so I'll be needing to clean them out asap. What do you guys use for cleaning? Just soap and water? Or are there any other solutions that would be better (and safe of course).

For spot cleaning of an occupied enclosure (e.g., Avic poop on the glass), just warm water and a paper towel.

For thorough cleaning of an entire (recently vacated) enclosure, dish soap and water followed by thorough rinsing.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

This is going to be more of a pain than I had anticipated. The poor things have mites in their enclosures too... Sigh.

That’s a huge spore, I’m not sure if you should leave it. Scary!! I remove anything that big , wish. I had money to buy spingtails.

 

[Toddydog]

This is going to be more of a pain than I had anticipated. The poor things have mites in their enclosures too... Sigh.

The substrate isnt great to be fair and I'm not sure what kind of T is in there but that's not good for a terrestrial hight wise. If its arboreal (which it looks like webbing for an avic.) It needs more vertical things to climb. So either way I would catch cup the T. Do a full clean and reorganizing the enclosure.

 

[Razzledazzy]

In before boina comes in to yell about mites not being a problem.

 

[Theneil]

http://arachnoboards.com/threads/all-you-need-to-know-about-mites.309211/

The way i see it, mites themselves aren't a concern but maintaining conditions which permit enclosures to sustain massive populations of them can be. (dirty, rotting feeders/boli (is that the plural for bolus?) / overly wet.