The mold

[TheraMygale]

Its here.

we have not covered this subject enough. No matter what we say, mold will come and unleash our darkest fears.

this is why i will use this very expensive bag of reptisoil. Its never been opened, and yet, the unsightly tiny beady yellow eggs have started.

and guess what, my almost two inch davus pentaloris will get rehomed in that dirt.

of course i did not use the yellow parts. But lets be real, the sporing accured.

im not taking one for the team. I dont know you, i dont care. Im going to use it because its just mold.

and we will see.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Lot of mold here too. Below the surface, I had springtails they died off.
my wood isn’t moldy at all.

 

[TheraMygale]

Its so encouraging. We need to find a bug that eats this!

i am totaly making this my thing. Im going to mold my enclosures . Edit: this is sarcasm

why not at this point.

let it be said though, i aint taking one for the team. I dont care about all you feral humans

 

[viper69]

I would not purposely mold setups

 

[TheraMygale]

I would not purposely mold setups

yeah, i wont purposely mold setups. What i meant to say is i have a full bag of unopened reptisoil. I cant just throw it away. Some parts of the bag are showing some eggball yellow mold.

i moved the bags to a dryer place in the house. And am trying to get some of the moisture to breathe out.

figured id use the parts without the mold and try it in an enclosure and see what happens.

its really expensive bag of substrate. Dont want to lose it

i have two bags in total. One almost empty and has the mold in it now too. But the mold is not in any of my enclosures, except the nhandu color enclosure. Which got more moisture, but isnt really reptisoil. Its coco and peat.

So the yellow stuff in the bags is same thing in the nhandu enclosure, but not same Substrate. And we can see in the nhandu enclosure that the “mold” is just in the lower levels. Also in her burrow.

when she molts shes getting a refreshed enclosure, and i will be keeping it dryer. I also have a peice of cardboard that covers the burrow. So its not exposed to light. I open it only to check up on her. As she kept digging, i had to add a longer cardboard.

 

[Brewser]

There's Gold in them thar Mold aka golden moldies

 

[darkness975]

I've had mushrooms sprout in some of my humid enclosures. I just pull them out.

 

[TheraMygale]

I've had mushrooms sprout in some of my humid enclosures. I just pull them out.

For some reason, mushrooms disgust me less.

 

[darkness975]

For some reason, mushrooms disgust me less.

They are a fungus though.

 

[TheraMygale]

They are a fungus though.

Indeed. But the shape is different… these tiny balls, they make me gag. They look like alien eggs.

 

[Blue Jaye]

none of what I see in the pics is mold and most of what I see talked about isn’t mold. It is in fact fungus. And much harder to be rid of. All and I do mean all of the substate you buy in bags more than likely has mold spores. It’s the nature of keeping moist dirt in a plastic bag. Perfect environment for fungus. And unfortunately all of the substrate sold isn’t worth the money especially reptisoil. its just expensive low quality trash dirt that makes you feel like you stuck your hands in a bag of splinters. At least that’s been my experience it over the last several years. I no longer buy soil in bags for reptile or tarantula use as it is an absolute waste of money. Including the terrarania soil. It’s nothing special it does Fungus and mold.
the best way that I have found so far is making my own mix. And having much more ventilation in the enclosure with vent holes down at sub level as well. Heating dirt can kill off what fungus there is but can also trigger fungus growth. But heating dirt to 400 will kill off most things. I understand that most people don’t wanna take the extra steps to cook their dirt, etc.. so the best thing to do in my experience so far is to have more ventilation in your enclosures. and do a little more maintenance on keeping their humidity levels up, which is actually better being produced by humidity in the air than it is in the soil anyways.. the thought that tarantulas live in moist brows is not necessarily the case usually their brows are pretty dry. That’s why air humidity tends to help much more than soil humidity. Except for species that come from very moist environments.. then soil moisture is more important.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

the best way that I have found so far is making my own mix.

Which mixture?

 

[Blue Jaye]

Peat moss soil, clay sand or desert sand , broken up New Zealand moss and perlite . It makes for a nice mix that holds up well keeps moisture for a goodly amount of time and actually rehydrates decently..

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Peat moss soil, clay sand or desert sand , broken up New Zealand moss and perlite . It makes for a nice mix that holds up well keeps moisture for a goodly amount of time and actually rehydrates decently..

’nice thanks !
I can only get Peat moss that isn’t soil grade it flakes and dries out so I use coco fiber 40:60 top soil , which types of sand are safe for Ts? Is it necessary only for desert species ?
My perlite I cannot use except for plants , vermiculite was too expensive. $60 a bag.

 

[TheraMygale]

I need to update.

the mold in the burrow is starting to actualy clear out. Some spots that had a lot have less and some are actualy clear. The yellow has also started to get white in some places.

enclosure has not been moistened. Water bowl is still kept fresh.