How to prevent Mold growth on Cork Bark?

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Just give everything in the terrarium a quick trip through your autoclave every couple of weeks. That should keep the mold in check.

autoclave??

 

[The Snark]

autoclave??

Spore killer. Saturated steam. ~215 PSI @ ~280 F for X duration. Thick permeable materials, > 45 minutes. (Hospital standards for surgical instruments).

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Spore killer. Saturated steam. ~215 PSI @ ~280 F for X duration. Thick permeable materials, > 45 minutes. (Hospital standards for surgical instruments).

interesting!
Do you put wood in there ? Probably easier to soap it lightly and rinse /dry it.

 

[The Snark]

If you see mold, you have spores. The mold body is usually invisible. Spores are the ultimate survivalists able to survive exposure to heat up close to 600F. The only common way to outright kill the spores is exposure to saturated steam, prolonged exposure to ethylene oxide, EO, or direct UVC. UVC is mostly useless as spores can hide, be shaded, in something as small as a dust particle. UVC doesn't kill spores, it simply destroys their ability to reproduce.
EO is used for thick permeable substances like wood but requires prolonged exposure. 72 hours is common. It is also one of the most powerful carcinogens, capable of causing cancer with a single breath. It rapidly degrades and becomes harmless in a few seconds in open air.
That leaves saturated steam under pressure which literally tears spores apart or causes them to explode. Downside it woody materials become soft and flexible with prolonged steam exposure. How bent wood furniture is made. So the wood needs to dry out to regain it's stiffness,

I need @DaveM for the most up to date chart of saturated steam pressure and time duration.

Washing or any common household cleaner or chemical does not have any significant effect on spores. Benzalkonium Chloride concentrations >.05% will also kill spores but requires a fumes and vapors respirator and extended time exposure. Requires an extended wait time after treatment, a few hours after the material has dried completely, to not present a hazard to the animals. However the material may remain toxic for several hours, days, weeks, months, years........ After all, it's the end all be all preservative. Rinse repeatedly and thoroughly after use.

One way to reduce the mold in contained areas requires a little creativity. A fan, a HEPA filter and a UVC light in a tube or duct running continuously. Draws air out of the terrarium, the HEPA filter removes the particles in the air so spores can't hide and the UVC neutralizes them. This won't kill the mold but minimizes airborne spore spread.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

If you see mold, you have spores. The mold body is usually invisible. Spores are the ultimate survivalists able to survive exposure to heat up close to 600F. The only common way to outright kill the spores is exposure to saturated steam, prolonged exposure to ethylene oxide, EO, or direct UVC. UVC is mostly useless as spores can hide, be shaded, in something as small as a dust particle. UVC doesn't kill spores, it simply destroys their ability to reproduce.
EO is used for thick permeable substances like wood but requires prolonged exposure. 72 hours is common. It is also one of the most powerful carcinogens, capable of causing cancer with a single breath. It rapidly degrades and becomes harmless in a few seconds in open air.
That leaves saturated steam under pressure which literally tears spores apart or causes them to explode. Downside it woody materials become soft and flexible with prolonged steam exposure. How bent wood furniture is made. So the wood needs to dry out to regain it's stiffness,

I need @DaveM for the most up to date chart of saturated steam pressure and time duration.

Washing or any common household cleaner or chemical does not have any significant effect on spores. Benzalkonium Chloride concentrations >.05% will also kill spores but requires a fumes and vapors respirator and extended time exposure. Requires an extended wait time after treatment, a few hours after the material has dried completely, to not present a hazard to the animals. However the material may remain toxic for several hours, days, weeks, months, years........ After all, it's the end all be all preservative. Rinse repeatedly and thoroughly after use.

One way to reduce the mold in contained areas requires a little creativity. A fan, a HEPA filter and a UVC light in a tube or duct running continuously. Draws air out of the terrarium, the HEPA filter removes the particles in the air so spores can't hide and the UVC neutralizes them. This won't kill the mold but minimizes airborne spore spread.

what do you cook stuff in this machine to kill mold???
Only bark I’ve had mold bad enough to toss was that stuff that peels off maple and certain trees. It’s best I just buy cork bark , once I use my two new hides .

 

[DaveM]

I need @DaveM for the most up to date chart of saturated steam pressure and time duration.

Ummm.... my chart got moldy so I threw it away. That's a lie, really. I never had a chart. For a technical and specific answer with exact values: I always set my autoclave to a very high temperature and a very high pressure for a very long time.

Even bacterial growth medium that has been autoclaved -- (by people other than me, again I'm winking at you) -- sometimes grows mold. Mold spores can survive prolonged exposure in outer space. You could burn your cork bark in a camp fire to obtain mold-free ashes. You can treat cork with any of a number of chemicals highly toxic to you and your spider. After the chemicals are removed, if you can remove them sufficiently from the sponge-like cork, new mold spores will cheerfully waft in as brave pioneers to recolonize.

It's best just to keep enclosures reasonably clean and not unreasonably wet, and accept that a little bit of mold will be present. It's usually harmless.

I like mold very much, in fact. It has saved hundreds of millions of people since the discovery of penicillin (around 500 million just with penicillin itself, and then there are many derivative antibiotics that continue to work for our salvation). And for any psychopaths that don't care about other people, think of the cheeses, like Roquefort, Stilton, and other blues. Limburger cheese is not made by mold, but by a bacterial species Brevibacterium linens. I like bacteria too.

Microorganisms can be a healthy and beneficial part of your spider enclosure ecosystem, and if you don't appreciate that, then resign yourself at least to their inevitability.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Ummm.... my chart got moldy so I threw it away. That's a lie, really. I never had a chart. For a technical and specific answer with exact values: I always set my autoclave to a very high temperature and a very high pressure for a very long time.

Even bacterial growth medium that has been autoclaved -- (by people other than me, again I'm winking at you) -- sometimes grows mold. Mold spores can survive prolonged exposure in outer space. You could burn your cork bark in a camp fire to obtain mold-free ashes. You can treat cork with any of a number of chemicals highly toxic to you and your spider. After the chemicals are removed, if you can remove them sufficiently from the sponge-like cork, new mold spores will cheerfully waft in as brave pioneers to recolonize.

It's best just to keep enclosures reasonably clean and not unreasonably wet, and accept that a little bit of mold will be present. It's usually harmless.

I like mold very much, in fact. It has saved hundreds of millions of people since the discovery of penicillin (around 500 million just with penicillin itself, and then there are many derivative antibiotics that continue to work for our salvation). And for any psychopaths that don't care about other people, think of the cheeses, like Roquefort, Stilton, and other blues. Limburger cheese is not made by mold, but by a bacterial species Brevibacterium linens. I like bacteria too.

Microorganisms can be a healthy and beneficial part of your spider enclosure ecosystem, and if you don't appreciate that, then resign yourself at least to their inevitability.

Your soil and cocoa fiber is more likely to mold, than wood. Especially cork bark.

 

[The Snark]

For a technical and specific answer with exact values: I always set my autoclave to a very high temperature and a very high pressure for a very long time.

Try telling that to the surgeon with a patient under the knife waiting for an instrument to be sterilized.
Nearly all surgeries that don't have a redundant supply of every conceivable instrument have a flasher. About 28 PSIG sat. steam @ 132 C. 3-5 minutes exposure.

what do you cook stuff in this machine to kill mold???

Sort of. The oven, autoclave, presents an environment of not less than 97% saturated steam. As in your kitchen pressure cooker ^2.

 

[The Snark]

Lets get real about molds and fungi. Consider; every breath you take contains mold and or fungi spores. And a whole heck of a lot of other spores.

Want to entirely get rid of mold or fungi growth? All those spores have one thing in common, finding a location that is conducive to their growth.

Got mold or fungi? You are giving it a place to grow.

The real world. Take @DaveM He gets a brand new instrument for use in his bio lab. The first thing he does it put it in the autoclave and sterilize it. Unless it came in a dated sterile package he has to sterilize it. If the sterile package has exceeded it's date, he still has to sterilize it. Spores are spores, unavoidable.