pile of powder under drifwood?

hassman789

Arachnobaron
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I bought a bag of drifwood from a petco a while ago and I had alot of peices sitting on my desk for a long time and noticed a powder all overthe desk, I never knew what it was until I put a different peice of driftwood in my avics enclosure and i saw a little pile of it at the bottom. It is obviously a little pile of the wood. And whats kind of scary is that it looks like those piles under logs that have termites. But I can't see any bugs and termites are kind of big. Does anyone know what could be causing this? I have absolutly no idea and Should I take that piece out of the enclosure?

I just remembered. I somtimes see booklice and I think I have seen a few in my avics enclosure. Could they be doing this?
 
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cacoseraph

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it does sound like termites.


can you look at the dust you are finding with a magnifying glass? without magnification termite dirt looks like little balls. with mag it looks almost like little ribbed barrels http://twitpic.com/179sc


i'm not sure if all termite poo looks like that, but if it *does* look like that then it is a safe bet it is termites
 

hassman789

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This is scary:(. I took out the wood and i saw a bunch of the little bugs that I think are booklice, can they do that? and it didn't look like balls, it just looked like a VERY fine powder. I think it was the booklice doing this because aren't termites big? Upon inspection I could find no holes what so ever.
 

Newflvr

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powder

Without pics it's hard to say for sure, my 2 cents is possible powder post beetles. Evidence is a small hole in the wood with a pile of fine dust under the hole. You can nuke the wood to kill them, but I would suggest just burning that lot and starting over. Kevin
 

hassman789

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There was no hole. I read that booklice can cause small damage to wood from chewing on microscopic mold. So I'm thinking that now and not so scared anymore:). Still don't like em though, I hate small bugs that reproduce and are hard to get rid of!:mad:
 

Wachusaynoob

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If you cant return it, you could probobly Put it in the oven for a while to kill them...:confused:
 

hassman789

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If you cant return it, you could probobly Put it in the oven for a while to kill them...:confused:
Theres no way I can return it. I got it a long time ago and i lost like half of them, I don't care about keeping it, I was just worried about my tarantula. I threw that piece of wood outside right once I saw the bugs lol.
 

Bill S

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I'd bet on book lice. There are many kinds of book lice, some eat wood products, some eat decaying material. One variety that I deal with eats the fungus that grows on bat guano (and is in turn preyed upon by pseudoscorpions).
 

webbedone

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If you want to kill what ever is eating your wood pieces without making the piece toxic to the T. Either BOIL IT or FREEZE IT. i personally boil everything when i pop open packaging just in this case even river pebles, only because it says 100% doesnt mean its not infectious
 

hassman789

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Revived!

They are at it again!:mad::mad::mad::mad: Well no more Mr. Niceguy, come this weekend the whole enclosure is being FROZEN! MUWAHAHAHAHAAHA!{D I'm thinking it's safe to freeze a tarantulacages enclosure. Things only brake in the freezer when they have water in them or they are closed right? And I'll have the enclosure door open so all the temps are equal. And I will be blowdrying (on hot) the whole area the cage is in. Goodbye booklice!;P
 

AmbushArachnids

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They are at it again!:mad::mad::mad::mad: Well no more Mr. Niceguy, come this weekend the whole enclosure is being FROZEN! MUWAHAHAHAHAAHA!{D I'm thinking it's safe to freeze a tarantulacages enclosure. Things only brake in the freezer when they have water in them or they are closed right? And I'll have the enclosure door open so all the temps are equal. And I will be blowdrying (on hot) the whole area the cage is in. Goodbye booklice!;P
Just becareful of fast cooling and warming. Also make sure there isnt alot of water in the substrate. The substrate will expand if its wet. You could always microwave everythng and clean out the cage with light bleach water. Just make sure you let it air out well. Good luck.
 

NevularScorpion

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They are at it again!:mad::mad::mad::mad: Well no more Mr. Niceguy, come this weekend the whole enclosure is being FROZEN! MUWAHAHAHAHAAHA!{D I'm thinking it's safe to freeze a tarantulacages enclosure. Things only brake in the freezer when they have water in them or they are closed right? And I'll have the enclosure door open so all the temps are equal. And I will be blowdrying (on hot) the whole area the cage is in. Goodbye booklice!;P
lol I think you should just change your substrate to stop them from coming back
 

groovyspider

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if your about to frezze it i would put the cage in the refridgerayor to kinda alccimate it then freezer just to be on safe side
 

NevularScorpion

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I think its better to just freezer it right away to shock the lice. imagine from 75 F to negative -40F in 2 mins lol that will send them back to the ice age and kill the living hell out of them
 

AmbushArachnids

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I think its better to just freezer it right away to shock the lice. imagine from 75 F to negative -40F in 2 mins lol that will send them back to the ice age and kill the living hell out of them
Most freezer temps are kept at 0 F or 18-C :D
 

hassman789

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Just becareful of fast cooling and warming. Also make sure there isnt alot of water in the substrate. The substrate will expand if its wet. You could always microwave everythng and clean out the cage with light bleach water. Just make sure you let it air out well. Good luck.
I'm lazy lol. I'm going to take out the substrate (and the spider) and pop the whole thing in the freezer. all the decor is either hot glued to somthing or "liquid nailed in" lol!
 
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