Cleaning terra-cotta/clay pots to be used as hides

[antinous]

Picked up a bunch of terra-cotta/clay pots from Michaels today and was wondering how would you properly clean them? Soak them in warm water with a little dish soap and then rinse them off with warm water?

 

[BoyFromLA]

I wouldn’t use any soap, just to be safe. Running water would be more than enough. Break in half so that tarantula could burrow underneath it would be a wise idea.

 

[Mirandarachnid]

You could use vinegar as well. I usually wash with a tiny amount of dish soap, rinse the daylights out of it with hot water, then wash with vinegar and rinse until I don't smell any vinegar. With terra cotta pots being as porous as they are, I would probably soak in vinegar for at least an hour to make sure there wasn't any soap residue hanging around.

And yeah, break it in half. I also sand down sharp edges. Some of my T's like to block up the front of their hide and go in through the back (giggity) so I like to make sure all edges are smooth.

 

[viper69]

Ive only rinsed clay pots. They are porous to water, so I've never used chemicals.

 

[The Snark]

Wow. A porous material like that. If you really wanted to get deep down dirt out - major cleaning, I'd try a test piece using sodium hydroxide drain cleaner. I suspect the silica in the clay would just shrug it off but not sure. Don't worry about residue, just rinse thoroughly.

 

[EtienneN]

I just used hot water for mine, but the vinegar suggestion sounds like a sound idea to get it "extra" clean.