I maaaaaaaaaay have gone a little overboard

Do you do any treating or cleaning for wild collected items like that? Or just put it in the enclosures raw?

6 Likes

Jealous af :sweat_smile:

Family of mine recently dug up a garden to lay foundation, unfortunately not much of the wood was suitable, I did however get a fair bit of slate which was nice
I also got a huge hollow stump which quickly became my beardies hide

Gotta love having friends/family in trade

6 Likes

I had read several articles over the years that suggest treating any wood you add to enclosures. You obviously wouldnt want ant bugs that burrowed deep inside the pieces to start munching on your enclosures, especially if there were termites deep in the branches. But the treatment method was simply to palce the wood in an oven at about 200 degress for a couple hours. Obviously this is a problem if the pieces are large enough. Might be able to find somewhere that cures ceramics that could handle larger pieces. Most ceramic shops have some Sort of walk-in kilns.

4 Likes

I heard bleach also works

4 Likes

I’m pretty sure I see some more room in that front passenger side, so I say you didn’t get enough :grin:.

5 Likes

You can also boil, using a bath tub for pieces this big :slightly_smiling_face:

4 Likes

No such thing as too much wood/bark/driftwood/logs. I would’ve also picked up like 3 carloads :rofl:

5 Likes

110% same here

2 Likes

:rofl: :joy: :rofl:
I was wondering if anyone would catch tha
.
.
.

Having suffered at the hands of my, now, 8.5 year old for the past five years, I am pretty sure they have weathered far worse than this LOL
.
.
.

There is actually a large stump/root ball there, it just does not raise up into the pic very much. HAd to buckle the seatbelt on it to shut up the ‘Passenger not wearing belt’ alarm :rofl:
.
.
.

So…
.
.

Kind of controversial, but this is my standard action. I have read and heard all the arguments for sterilizing everything but I really do not agree with it.

If you are going bio-active then, honestly, the more diverse the microflora and microfauna the better. Yes, there are somethings you probably do not want (the mention of termites is pretty valid, ditto ants) but looking over the pieces really well you can avoid the worst offenders. For other things, I do not much mind if they are in there. If I get millipedes, they are good scavengers for detritus in conjunction with isopods. Little beetles and snails and slugs are fun beasts to stumble upon randomly. Heck, I do not even mind earthworms and stuff because they till up the media and keep it fresh. I also love all the fun fungi you can get because they help stabilize the media and recycle waste.

I also prefer doing this because the diversity right from the start means the system reaches equilibrium significantly faster than if I start with everything sterile and barren and have to build from nothing. I also find that the final equalized system is more robust when done this way. Again, because of the diversity
.
.
.

I generally advocate against this unless it is with something non-porous. Even after repeated soakings in clear water there tends to be retention of the bleach which then slowly leaks out into the cage environment.

9 Likes

Oops did not know that!

3 Likes

The great thing about communities like this is they allow us to share things like this to a broader audience :+1:t4:

8 Likes

I think Jason is in the middle of the lake which is in the middle of the Blair witch woods down the street from The Last House on the Left next to Michael Meyer’s house around the corner from Freddy Kruger…….:joy::lizard::frog::snake:

Now that’s a lot of wood I would say! Lol! :joy:

dude going overboard is in every way impossible!!!

2 Likes