Substrate sanitation?
- Thread starter Lucifel
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Tarantulas don't require sterile conditions therefore substrate doesn't need to be sanitized.
- Lonnie
- Lonnie
Alot of people bake peet and coco fibre to kill mold etc at like 200F i think for like 15-20mins or more. Or bake coco fibre if you make it with water from the bricks.
I have used this oven-method to sanitize AND evaporate chemicals out of potting soil for my ter. T's. I can't find the darn link now, but specifically for the soil: you want to use a therm and maintain the soil at 180f for 30 minutes... I have also used this method on sticks and rocks found in the wild to remove them of any little critters that might harm my Ts
"I'm not not-licking toads." HS
"I'm not not-licking toads." HS
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The peat, potting soil, topsoil or anything I use (mostly peat) I put it straight into the enclosure. I just don't see any reason to bake or nuke the substrate. Considering how T's live in the wild, any store bought sub should be cleaner & have less chance of unwanted critters. I make sure & buy the plain generic products without added fertilizer or "growth stimulator". No worries.
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same here.....from the bag or bale right to the cage.
no baking required.
moose
no baking required.
moose
The peat, potting soil, topsoil or anything I use (mostly peat) I put it straight into the enclosure. I just don't see any reason to bake or nuke the substrate. Considering how T's live in the wild, any store bought sub should be cleaner & have less chance of unwanted critters. I make sure & buy the plain generic products without added fertilizer or "growth stimulator". No worries.
I bake the indigenous sticks and rocks I find to kill critters that are not found in th T's natural enviro. (wherever the T comes from becasue I'm in WI.. No T's live here naturally
) The potting soil I bake, not for the critters so much, but because the process also turns MOST of the chemicals therein into a gas and allows them to escape the soil. I don't know about anyone else, but I have a really hard time finding potting soil free of chemicals, and when I do, its five times the price and ALWAYS has fertilizer in it. Both of these substances are frowned upon in TTKG, from what I've see. Long story short, I feel the time and money I've invested in my T's is worth the little extra step to ensure their health, at least IMO... I would never microwave the substrate though. It just feels wrong....
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Attempting to sanitize substrate is futile in the first place, and can be downright dangerous! Don't do it!
Futility: While baking or other sanitizing may kill fungal spores, bacteria, mites, and other nasties, you will be reintroducing them as soon as you open the cage and pop in the tarantula. The spider carries a load of spores, eggs and such on its own body, and I know of absolutely no way to get rid of them.
Then, every time you pop in a few crickets, roaches, or other food you reintroduce another seed culture of infecting and infesting pests.
In truth, every time you open the cage (assuming it was more or less sealed in the first place) you allow another seed culture of spores and such to settle out of the air onto the substrate. If it wasn't sealed, it has experienced a steady rain of spores and dormant microorganisms from the moment you set it up. All of your finest efforts were a waste of time and effort.
Does it sound like you're fighting a losing war? In fact, you are! But, proper tarantula husbandry will reduce the probability of an infection or infestation to a very low minimum, and the tarantula's own physiological and anatomical defense mechanisms will protect it the rest of the way.
Danger: There have been reports of people trying to bake their substrate and thereby causing a fire in the oven!
Don't do this. Learn the proper way to care for your tarantula in the first place and you can avoid a lot of the stress and worry of caring for these animals. You (and a lot of others as well, apparently) do not appreciate the qualities and characteristics of your pets fully enough. Read and heed http://people.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/stansrant.html and save yourself a lot of wasted time, effort and money. Probably a few dead tarantulas as well!
Enjoy your long-legged, 'hairy' spiders!
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The trend of sterilisation does, I think come mainly from the aquarist hobby where you really want to kill off parasites, algae or alien plants and where it makes sense to have things squeaky clean as you set up your tank. It also makes sense in other moist environment tanks, but not for a tarantula.
Too many Ts can be kept dry which outright prevents anything bad from happening. Many Ts also web a lot, and the webbing itself helps to keep their environment clean and disease free. So I wouldn't worry too much.
And as mentioned - and worth mentioning again - if you forget your peat in the oven you can create something like this.
Danger: There have been reports of people trying to bake their substrate and thereby causing a fire in the oven!
I agree 100%. I never preform the above-mentioned method on the eco-earth bricks.. Waste of time and dangerous, IMO, as stated by others above. Just curious though, does anyone else go through any process for their SOIL that they use?? here's why: All my haplos over the years have shown reluctance to walk on the coco-fiber that works so well for other sp. While having three lividums that refused to burrow was nice for me, I'm sure it was not nice for them. I checked around online and read that soil was a viable option. I transferred one of them into new digs with a nice thick layer of soil. He died a few days later.. :8o:wall: found an article on chemicals in store-bought soil... LSS next time I used the oven method on the dirt, for chemical evap. mind you, not sterilization and grumpy, (another lividum), is thriving in a nice burrow with no webs to cover the sub. Whattya guys think, soil-baking ok? Overkill? , or was the death of my first transfer coincidence????
I agree 100%. I never preform the above-mentioned method on the eco-earth bricks.. Waste of time and dangerous, IMO, as stated by others above. Just curious though, does anyone else go through any process for their SOIL that they use?? here's why: All my haplos over the years have shown reluctance to walk on the coco-fiber that works so well for other sp. While having three lividums that refused to burrow was nice for me, I'm sure it was not nice for them. I checked around online and read that soil was a viable option. I transferred one of them into new digs with a nice thick layer of soil. He died a few days later.. :8o:wall: found an article on chemicals in store-bought soil... LSS next time I used the oven method on the dirt, for chemical evap. mind you, not sterilization and grumpy, (another lividum), is thriving in a nice burrow with no webs to cover the sub. Whattya guys think, soil-baking ok? Overkill? , or was the death of my first transfer coincidence????
PhobeToPhile
Arachnoknight
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I don't think it's coincidence, but that's just me. Mind you, I don't know if lingering pesticides will be destroyed by baking. Where did you get your second batch from? Was it any different from the first?
It was the same brand, (generic wal mart) but different bag. I got rid of the first stuff just in case it was some parasite or something. I was convinced the pesticides or whatever was to blame and decided to try baking and things worked out well. I can at least see the logic behind the claim; If you think about it, chemicals in the soil would most likely be "hooked up" with hydrogen particles in water. (chemist confirm or deny?) Therefore, "baking" them would seem a logical way to turn them back to gas form and allow them to escape the soil? at least that's the way I understand it, but I am not a chemist by any means....
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I have never sanitized substrate.
Straight from the bag to the tank. I have not had any problems.
I find that people make things way more complicated than they have to be.
Their hearts are in the right place, but as your collections grow, you have to find simple ways to do things
Straight from the bag to the tank. I have not had any problems.
I find that people make things way more complicated than they have to be.
Their hearts are in the right place, but as your collections grow, you have to find simple ways to do things
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- Jul 16, 2004
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Amen! Hallelujah! And, right on!I have never sanitized substrate.
Straight from the bag to the tank. I have not had any problems.
I find that people make things way more complicated than they have to be.
Their hearts are in the right place, but as your collections grow, you have to find simple ways to do things