Question about cork bark

[Gail]

OK, I'm gonna sound like a newbie here but I gotta know - how do you keep your cork bark from sprouting all sorts of mold and 'shrooms when you keep misting it for the aboreals? I really like to stick to plastic drain pipe or silk plants anymore because I had such problems with the mold. Could it be I just have a mold inducing home or something cause it seems any sort of natural material I put in for my aboreals will get funky.

Gail

 

[MrT]

Gale,
I know that mold will only grow in areas that stay wet. Having said that, mold spores will stop growing when they dry up.The only way to keep it from growing again, when it gets wet, is to kill it. Chlorine bleach will kill it. Wipe off the mold you can see after it drys up with a old tooth brush or something like that. Be careful not to breath the mold dust, it could make you sick. After you do that , take a spray bottle with the bleach and spray the mold areas and items. Let them soak, rinse, soak in bleach again, rinse, then let them completely dry. That should kill the mold. If all the spores aren't killed, it will start to multiply and grow again.
Also, you'll need to rinse till you can't smell chlorine anymore. I don't know what chlorine smell might do to T's.

Good luck'

Ernie

 

[atavuss]

Originally posted by Gail
OK, I'm gonna sound like a newbie here but I gotta know - how do you keep your cork bark from sprouting all sorts of mold and 'shrooms when you keep misting it for the aboreals? I really like to stick to plastic drain pipe or silk plants anymore because I had such problems with the mold. Could it be I just have a mold inducing home or something cause it seems any sort of natural material I put in for my aboreals will get funky.

Gail

I had some cork bark get almost solid green with fungus or mold or something when I had it a very humid enclosure with amblypigids. I just drilled more holes in the top and cut down on the amount of water in the substrate and the fuzzy stuff just went away on its own...
Ed

 

[LaRiz]

200 degrees for 45 minutes...

Gail,
I don't know much about molds or fungus, but here's a couple of things I noticed. When I buy the corkbark, sometimes I'll break it up, and run the pieces under hot water, basically cleaning along the way. Some of the corkbark goes to very high humid, with very little airflow, enclosures.
Some will grow molds, some will not. The ones that did grow mold, I'll take and wash under hot water, scrubing with an old toothbrush. Then I'll bake them at 200 degrees (Fahrenheit, for our foreign hobbyists) for 45 minutes. 45 minutes may seem long, but it makes sure any spores are killed. Those baked corks never get the molds again. Hope this helps.
john