I'm treating my iguana for mites but the wood is also harboring them. I've sprayed the wood with reptile relief as well but it doesn't seem to be doing the trick (it's only been a couple days though) I wanted to try frying the hell outta little guys instead. Does anyone know a good way to sterilize the wood?
sterilizing wood
- Thread starter LeilaNami
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bake it in the oven or boil it
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200 degrees for two hours should do it. It'll take a lot of heat to burn the wood, not much to kill anything living on it. You can probably go hotter like 300 or so as well. I would just keep an eye on the whole process to make sure you are not making charcoal. As long as the wood it thouroughly heated it should kill everything on and in it.
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paper burns at 454 F so anything less than that shoudl be ok. BUT id boil watrer adn pour on it instead . not sure how big it is but you an boil it or NUKE it in the mocrowave with some water and probablyt do better at killin the buggers and not burning the wood
it seems that wet heat kills em better to me
it seems that wet heat kills em better to me
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Bake it at 250F or you'll char it and/or make it very brittle... saying this from experience 
Boil it if it's small enough to fit in a pot... nuking will do exactly what it does to everything else... zap one spot extremely and another barely.
Soak it in 5% bleach water for a few days (I do a week) and then either sun it or rinse it to relieve the chlorine that can irritate your critters.
All of my tanks have driftwood that I have found and treated myself. The only mites I've ever discovered in my vivs are the symbionic ones that "belong" there (ie. Giant African Millipede).
Good Luck!
Boil it if it's small enough to fit in a pot... nuking will do exactly what it does to everything else... zap one spot extremely and another barely.
Soak it in 5% bleach water for a few days (I do a week) and then either sun it or rinse it to relieve the chlorine that can irritate your critters.
All of my tanks have driftwood that I have found and treated myself. The only mites I've ever discovered in my vivs are the symbionic ones that "belong" there (ie. Giant African Millipede).
Good Luck!
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i would suggest just throwing it away...why risk a reinfestation over wood...
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Exactly. It could be the wood that is the source of the problem anyways.
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- Apr 24, 2007
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Ya using outside stuff for inside animals only causes problems.