New Objects in the Enclosure

I was wondering if there was a good way to clean strips of bark or dead leaves before introducing them into a terrestrial enclosure? I was kind of assuming that a thorough rinsing with clean water would be alright, and a check for invert pests on the materials. Aside from this I was considering a bleach or chlorine solution, which I would hate to do because I'm not a fan of working with chemicals. Any advice on the subject would be helpful, thanks guys!

DrNachoZ said:

I was wondering if there was a good way to clean strips of bark or dead leaves before introducing them into a terrestrial enclosure? I was kind of assuming that a thorough rinsing with clean water would be alright, and a check for invert pests on the materials. Aside from this I was considering a bleach or chlorine solution, which I would hate to do because I'm not a fan of working with chemicals. Any advice on the subject would be helpful, thanks guys!

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I have always only used hot/boiling water on loogs, stones and so. The leaf i collect for my tanks i only wash with hot water for a while, and after coold water. Both for amphibians and reptiles.

Regards.

I forgot, if it is a large loog or bark pice you can put it in hot water for a day or two, bathtub is a perfect place for that.

When looking at bark and logs, probably the best thing you can do is to scrub it with clean water and then let it dry throughly. Attempting to disinfect these with disinfecting solutions is a waste of time as the organic nature of the material causes the disinfecting solution to lose effectiveness and attempting to disinfect using hot water or baking is also usually ineffective as the material has insulating properties which prevents the interior from achieving temperatures that are effective in disinfecting the material.

The only way to truly disinfect the material is to autoclave it (or pressure cook it).

Stones can be scrubbed throughly and then if desired soaked in a bleach solution but again this suffers from the same problem as the wood as the crevices will prevent the solution from reaching the interior of the material.
Baking stones is not recommended as water trapped in the center of the stone can get hot enough to cause the stone to explode....

Heating/cooking leaves will disinfect them but the down side is that this causes the leaves to break down much more quickly in the water. Throughly drying them is a good way to deal with a lot of the problems.

Some thoughts,

Ed

For wood: boiling, avoid using cedar,willow, pine or cherry, as these woods contain chemicals toxic to amphibians.

For rock: Boiling or heating in any form is exceedingly dangerous! UV sterilization is best, however a vigorous scrubbing with a supersaturated salt solution followed by rinsing in plain tap water and then drying in direct sunlight is good too. When choosing rock, Granite and Sandstone is best, as is Quartzite, Marble and Chalcedony. Shale, Schist and other soft stones should be avoided as they can harbor fungus and parasites.

For dry leaf litter: UV sterilization is best, but 30 seconds on high power in the microwave works well also.

For Bark: Bark is probably the trickiest of the lot. Cork bark should not require and further processing, but "found" bark should get a good boiling followed by an extensive drying period. Follow the same rules as for wood .

Thanks Johnny, that kind of information is really useful for me.

Hi, i have to remormulate me, i do not use boiling water att rocks, olny as hot as the water tap allow in the bathtub and had never had any probleme under my years. The boiling is for bark and loogs.

Thanks for the tip with leaf litters, i shall try the micro next time or drying them as mentioned.

Just a quick note on Microwaving leaves:

If you decide to use this method YOU MUST stay and observe the process to prevent a fire. Just like microwaving popcorn, it can result in a really smelly smoke in your house and permanent damage to your microwave.

Here is the procedure I use:

Soak the leaves over night in untreated tap water. Never 'wave dry leaves!

Next, Take the leaves out and let them drip dry for a bit to get the water off of them. I set them on an old window screen for this.

Now, place a paper plate in your microwave and put a small handful of leaves on it. Never "cook" more than this amount at any one time.

Microwave on HIGH power for 30 seconds, watching the leaves closely. If you see smoke or steam escaping, hit the stop button, your leaves are done. Let them cool off for a while before handling them.

Place the microwaved leaves in a brown paper sack. They will still be damp, but this sack will allow them to dry out completely over the next few days. (If you need dry leaves)

For leaves to be used as an aquatic substrate, keep the completely cooled off leaves in a ziplock bag in the freezer and thaw them out as you need them.


An alternative method for wood, bark and leaves is to use a pressure cooker, but as these are rare now a days, I will not bother to include instructions unless requested.


I will also add here that I have a friend that owns a tattoo shop and I use his old autoclave for my bark and wood now. Not to worry, he has new autoclave for the tattoo guns.

SludgeMunkey said:

For wood: boiling, avoid using cedar,willow, pine or cherry, as these woods contain chemicals toxic to amphibians.

For rock: Boiling or heating in any form is exceedingly dangerous! UV sterilization is best, however a vigorous scrubbing with a supersaturated salt solution followed by rinsing in plain tap water and then drying in direct sunlight is good too. When choosing rock, Granite and Sandstone is best, as is Quartzite, Marble and Chalcedony. Shale, Schist and other soft stones should be avoided as they can harbor fungus and parasites.

For dry leaf litter: UV sterilization is best, but 30 seconds on high power in the microwave works well also.

For Bark: Bark is probably the trickiest of the lot. Cork bark should not require and further processing, but "found" bark should get a good boiling followed by an extensive drying period. Follow the same rules as for wood .

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Okay,
can you explain how UV sterilization deals with any potential pathogens in the crevices or contained inside the materials?

Sandstone tends to be a very soft stone as well as being very porus can you explain how sandstone is less likely than shale etc to contain pathogens and fungus?

Can you explain how a saturated salt solution is a sufficient disinfectant to amphibian pathogens such as many coccidia and penetrates the crevices sufficiently to supply adequate disinfection?

With respect to bark.. how are you determining that the temperature has penetrated the interior of the material sufficiently to ensure disinfection?

I am asking these questions as there is a lot of misinformation floating around on what is the best way to disinfect materials such as these and many of them are not supported by any scientific data and usually are at best a method that allows for the keeper to feel that they at least tried something, at worst, they are a health hazard to the keeper (such as the risk of having the rocks explode in the oven or when removed) or increase decomosition rates of cage furnishings requiring a greater turnover in stripping of the enclosure...

Ed

Wow guys, thanks so much for all the help. I would have thanked you all earlier, but when I posted this thread my computer froze so I didn't think it made it up! This is great information for a new keeper like me.