Should I wash it off?

[ThrunThru]

Hello,

I just picked up from my Avic's terrarium the wooden bark that I bought a few months ago and I find some white stuff underneath it. <LINK>
Is that dangerous for my tarantula? I find that I also have some of it around the glass.

The substrate I use is a mix of Eco-Earth and Coco-Husk. I got a medium-big water dish.

I wasn't home for the past two days and my lil brother was taking care of my Avic. I guess that's why the substrate looks so soggy right now.

 

[PrimalTaunt]

Looks moldy to me but I'm no mold expert. I'd get it out of there because I subscribe to the better safe than sorry mentality.

 

[Crysta]

That will just keep growing back if you wash it off. Looks more like a fungus then mold though. Buy(or get outside, not from the same location) a new peice of bark, bake it in the oven at 250-350 before you put it in the spiders enclosure.

 

[ThrunThru]

That will just keep growing back if you wash it off. Looks more like a fungus then mold though. Buy(or get outside, not from the same location) a new piece of bark, bake it in the oven at 250-350 before you put it in the spiders enclosure.

What if I take that same piece of bark, bake it in the oven and then put it back in the terrarium. Would that do anything good? Btw, is boiling it a good idea?

Besides that wooden bark, should I change (or renew) the substrate 'cause I saw some of that fungus on the glass side?

 

[Crysta]

Theres a lots of different types of fungus/mold out there. Some are really hard to get rid of, while others are not - if its growing in the tank i'd reccoemend changing the substrate.
Some fungus - even if you boil/bake it does come back to life - but its pretty rare.(Well not that rare) You can try baking your current peice of wood to see if it solves the problem, but it's not a for sure solution depending on what species you have growing.

 

[grayzone]

yeah if it IS mold/fungus then change substrate. if ya wanna boil the wood too FINE thats great idea.. id boil then bake to get all the moisture back out of the wood ( wood is porous) ... have you ever stopped to wonder if its just spider poo i hear avics like to stain up the glass and the wood theyll climb over

 

[Robin Da Hood]

Well if you are going to those extremes with your cleaning make sure you wash and clean out that enclosure. You want to make sure you get rid of the mold/fungus whatever it is out of your enclosure itself. Everything I am reading say 6 month to year for an enclosure cleaning, aside from the normal water change and food corpse clean up. Keep us up to date.