drift wood?

[cloud711]

can i use drift wood as a substitute for cork bark in an arboreal setup? the drift wood im talking about is the one used for fish tanks. is it safe for tarantula's?

 

[Dr Pies]

That will be fine. Never had a problem myself with it.

 

[Code Monkey]

The reasons most use corkbark is that it's significantly cheaper and that it weighs much less than driftwood or just about any other wood. If you're moving a tank and the corkbark shifts your spiders will be fine, if the driftwood suddenly shifts you are more likely to be scraping up your spider.

Other than that, if you can afford it and are careful about anchoring it in the enclosure, there's no reason not to.

 

[cloud711]

the one the petshops are selling here in the philippines are color black. is that the same with your's?

 

[Cirith Ungol]

Interesting question actually - let me put another egde to it: What about "WC" driftwood. Is that safe in regard to germs, or other harful stuff if it comes directly from a lake and is then left to dry for a few months?

 

[cloud711]

oh ok. can i use artificial type of wood like plastic?

 

[Dr Pies]

oh ok. can i use artificial type of wood like plastic?

Plastic would be fine, as most containers are plastic too

Interesting question actually - let me put another egde to it: What about "WC" driftwood. Is that safe in regard to germs, or other harful stuff if it comes directly from a lake and is then left to dry for a few months?

I'm more likely to find a shopping trolley in any lake near me I wouldn't use any wood that I found though, never sure whats lurking within the wood.

 

[cacoseraph]

oh ok. can i use artificial type of wood like plastic?

i think cirith was asking another question, not answering yours

and regarding cirith's question: whenever i use anything from the "wild" i either bake, nuke, or freeze it. that is, i bake it at ~250*F (um, call it 115*C) to cause any water bearing organisms to boil and die while minimizing the chance of actually lighting my wood on fire.

the microwave is less of a good bet to sterilize piece of wood in. i've accidentily set things on fire (or on smoke) using the microwave... but i also think the radiation can kill stuff very efficiently...

 

[cloud711]

do i have to heat or freeze it if i bought it from a pet shop? will it catch fire easily? whats the right temperature to heat it?

 

[Cirith Ungol]

and regarding cirith's question: whenever i use anything from the "wild" i either bake, nuke, or freeze it. that is, i bake it at ~250*F (um, call it 115*C) to cause any water bearing organisms to boil and die while minimizing the chance of actually lighting my wood on fire.

Ok, but thinking of that the wood has been submerged for ages and has basically been ground down to the bone the only living organisms in or on it have to be water based organisms in terms of habitat. So I was thinking that it should be safe to transfer the driftwood to dry land and use it in a dry tank. The downside is my knowlage - because I wouldn't know if there could be any kinds of germs which would make it as well in the air as in the water.

But as you said, baking/freezing it should take care of a lot of things - the end product would even take care of having to buy that stuff at such a high price in the pet shop ;-)

I'm lucky to have access to a rather wild/warm lake with lots of driftwood. I've been swimming in it a lot the last week due to extreme heat. Not thinking much about it I've been picking up lots of pieces of driftwood from the near shore area and throwing them further into the lake, not thinking about their potential as tank/T material :wall:

 

[Cirith Ungol]

do i have to heat or freeze it if i bought it from a pet shop? will it catch fire easily? whats the right temperature to heat it?

You will not have to do anything with it. Normally it's sold "sterilized", unless you are unlucky. You can ofcourse send it into the freezer for 1-2 days just to make sure.

 

[cloud711]

ok. but if i were to heat it in a microwave how long should i heat it? and at what temperature?

 

[Code Monkey]

My blanket comment to this last set of posts: do you think there are little lab faeries in the wild baking and autoclaving their substrate and trees?

People worry about a lot of things that make no sense. It's like how all those anti-bacterial gel products took off with human use. Problem is that heavy use dries and cracks the skin leaving you more prone to picking up an infection, not to mention that the ingredients are potentially carcinogenic.

A little baking/freezing to eliminate potential mites is about the long and short of what you need to worry with natural wood.

 

[cacoseraph]

The downside is my knowlage - because I wouldn't know if there could be any kinds of germs which would make it as well in the air as in the water.

i think it would be safer to assume there are some kind of germs/bacteria/evil spirits that do live in water and air and make sure they are dead

cuz i mean, ultimately, even if it isn't in a book... it still might be alive and undiscovered

 

[cacoseraph]

My blanket comment to this last set of posts: do you think there are little lab faeries in the wild baking and autoclaving their substrate and trees?

People worry about a lot of things that make no sense. It's like how all those anti-bacterial gel products took off with human use. Problem is that heavy use dries and cracks the skin leaving you more prone to picking up an infection, not to mention that the ingredients are potentially carcinogenic.

A little baking/freezing to eliminate potential mites is about the long and short of what you need to worry with natural wood.

I think it is in the Marshall's Barron's book on _Tarantulas and Other ARachnids_ where the author says the worst mold/fungal blooms he ever had were in sterilized soils. he said his belief was that when you kill off everything, the first thing to like "land" has no competition and takes off.

that said i agree that macroscopic bugs do need to be baked off

 

[Code Monkey]

Let's assume for the moment there are evil spider killing germs in driftwood, never mind that pathogens are generally only pathogens for a very small subset of species and harmless/relatively harmless to the entire rest of the living world. Let us also assume these evil spider killing germs are capable of forming endospores such that they are still lurking there present in dry wood.

Who has the autoclave here? Anyone?

Because if you don't, I can guarantee there is nothing you're going to be able to do in your home that will kill those endospores that either won't subsequently kill your spiders or destroy the wood in the process.

 

[cloud711]

you got a point there. anyway all im really worried about are mites and i just want to know if it will be used by an arboreal tarantula like pink toe.

 

[Code Monkey]

you got a point there. anyway all im really worried about are mites and i just want to know if it will be used by an arboreal tarantula like pink toe.

Well, mites should be easy: bake the wood in your oven at about 175F for 4-6 hours and you'll kill any arthropods hanging out in the outer layer. A pinktoe will be fine with it.

I've got no issue with people seeking sensible treatments, it's when it veers off into science-fiction category that I feel the need to make a comment

 

[cacoseraph]

My blanket comment to this last set of posts: do you think there are little lab faeries in the wild baking and autoclaving their substrate and trees?

People worry about a lot of things that make no sense. It's like how all those anti-bacterial gel products took off with human use. Problem is that heavy use dries and cracks the skin leaving you more prone to picking up an infection, not to mention that the ingredients are potentially carcinogenic.

A little baking/freezing to eliminate potential mites is about the long and short of what you need to worry with natural wood.

well, in nature things have been co-evolving to not wipe each other out... but some relatively unprotected exotic exposed to all our local nasties is a different story, i would imagine

 

[cacoseraph]

also, there is more than just "germs" to worry about

protistas, algae, mold, fungus... all those are present in nature and are in no way host specific, and yet can produce nasty effects