Washing enclosure items?

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TheJungleBook

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Hi :p

Been a while...

Just wondering what I should wash sticks/rocks from the bush (For my carpet python's enclosure)?
Warm water and salt or?

Thanks in advance!
 
Some will tell u u won't nd to do anything,others might tell u to wrap in black rubbish bags and leave in the sun for a day or 2,some say soak in a bath. It really depends on who or what method u choose to follow
 
I usually use either hot water, the oven or the microwave for substrate gotten from the wild, the microwave isn't recommended for rocks and pebbles, especially quartz as they can pop and fly around.
If too large for the oven or microwave I would go with what others have said and some hot water(ridding of mites and nemotodes being the main aim of the hotwater or heat source)
 
I got this hollow log, someone said I should probably spray it with insecticide or something... I haven't put it in yet because I'm too worried
 
I got this hollow log, someone said I should probably spray it with insecticide or something... I haven't put it in yet because I'm too worried

Hell no!

Put the log in a black plastic bag and leave it in the sun for a week.
 
I usually just quickly spray the items with f10 and wipe dry
 
I didn't think so? I've just left it in the sun but I'll grab some black plastic bags to put it in because I only have purple ones... Haha

Whats f10?
 
F10 is vet grade disinfectant.

Seeing as wood is porous I wouldn't use any chemicals cause they could retain residue. You can boil some water on the stove and soak it in that. You can do the garbage bag trick it's doesn't matter too much. Just don't use insecticides. F10 is okay cause it's mostly alcohol and that just disappears after a while. You can use vinegar too if you like, which also dissipates like alcohol
 
You can also use diluted bleach at a 1:30 ratio. Mix 100ml bleach to 3 litres hot water, soak what ever your sterilizing in the bleach solution, then soak in clean hot water ( the bleach will dissipate faster) then leave to dry. I use this solution to sterilise cages and furnishings, aswell as anything I've collected from the bush. If the smell of bleach is still there (it shouldn't be) then rinse again and leave to dry.

- - - Updated - - -

I should also add, bleach fumes are toxic, so if you can smell bleach on the object and think oh what the heck, and place it in the enclosure anyway, those fumes will build up in the enclosure and cause health problems for your herps.
 
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I just give them a quick brush down and put them in the enclosure. If they are particularly dirty, a quick hose down and dry in the sun. I use soil collected from nature for my substrate.

Just use common sense.
 
I just give them a quick brush down and put them in the enclosure. If they are particularly dirty, a quick hose down and dry in the sun. I use soil collected from nature for my substrate.

Just use common sense.

With the amount of parasites and pathogens you could possibly introduce to your collection, wouldn't taking the extra 10 minutes to clean and disinfect them properly be common sense?
 
I work for rspca and good old bleach and a week of sun works great .......

Sent from my GT-I9305 using Tapatalk
 
With the amount of parasites and pathogens you could possibly introduce to your collection, wouldn't taking the extra 10 minutes to clean and disinfect them properly be common sense?

Snakes in the wild deal with it well enough.

Like BWS said, its just common sense, you would be highly unlikely to introduce anything harmful to your collection if you know what you are getting and where from.

Personally I just bang the logs on the ground and maybe brush them off before they go into the enclosure.
 
Snakes in the wild deal with it well enough.

Like BWS said, its just common sense, you would be highly unlikely to introduce anything harmful to your collection if you know what you are getting and where from.

Personally I just bang the logs on the ground and maybe brush them off before they go into the enclosure.

Snakes in the wild also succomb to parasites and pathogens. If you are willing to take the risk, that's your decision.

It may be common sense to someone with experience, but to tell beginners to the hobby "just bang it on the ground, she'll be right" is not giving good advice. Cheers.
 
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F10 won't kill everything; mites for example, unless u have f10scxd instead of what most people have which is f10sc.
another option would be to use Permoxin. Dilute it and spray. I'd give it a good spray aswell as leave it wrapped up in a sunny hot place for a week. Im a bit paranoid about introducing things into a captive environment though.
 
It may be common sense to someone with experience, but to tell beginners to the hobby "just bang it on the ground, she'll be right" is not giving good advice. Cheers.

Ditto on recommending the use of household chemicals to inexperienced folks...

Each to their own.
 
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