Question about Microwaveing substarte

heyjeyniceid

Arachnobaron
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Sep 24, 2003
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bought some vermiculite to use in the new T. Blondi homes as I hear that its the most sterile substance to use.

SInce I also heard they can be a tad bit more sensitive than most T's, I went the extra mile and microiwaved the vermiculite for 15 seconds.

Is this safe? Im a microwavieng n00b and have never tried this. Got kinda nervous after I microwaved it not knowing if its safe or not.
 

deifiler

Arachnoprince
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Feb 22, 2003
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1,094
I do around 4 minutes in a 800W microwave... Still, it won't kill all the nasties. Baking it for 30 mins or so seems a betteridea a mon avis...

When we were younger (shame on us) we observed a fly last over 5 minutes in a microwave, then exit and fly off 'perfectly fine'. Come to think of it, that fly probably mutated or something gnarly and formed the SARS virus....

Vermiculite shouold be fine, however I wouldn't advise using it for your blondi, at least not 100% vermiculite... Maybe a ration of peat 70 : 30 vermiculite

Hope that helps
 

Code Monkey

Arachnoemperor
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Jul 22, 2002
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Microwave it, bake it, or autoclave it, it's sterile for about 5 seconds after you expose it to open air. Sterilising substrate unless you *know beyond all doubt* that it's infested with something deleterious is a waste of time that actually stands a better chance of opening up the tank for a harmful bacteria or fungus versus the perfectly harmless normal population that was in it to begin with.
 

Atalanta

Arachnoknight
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Sep 29, 2003
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From what I've read, it is best to moisten any substrate before microwaving to prevent fires.

For my blondi, I use jungle mix earth substrate (not the wood chip kind for herps) and coconut fiber bricks, which help hold in the humidity. The ratio I use is probably 60-65 jungle mix and 40-35 coconut fiber.
 

heyjeyniceid

Arachnobaron
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Sep 24, 2003
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oh! good info. Guess Ill be mixing in some peat as well.

just wanted to practice some preventative measures.
 

Code Monkey

Arachnoemperor
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Originally posted by heyjeyniceid
just wanted to practice some preventative measures.
What preventative measures? Preventing a normal population of fungi/bacteria? You want preventative, adapt your blondi to dry substrate, the worst thing you could be doing is attempting to create a sterile, moist environment becasue as anyone with a bit of knowledge about sterile technique can tell you it's only sterile for the 5 seconds I mentioned and then you run the risk of creating a monoculture of who knows what.

Do what you want, it's your T, but the only thing I make any effort to sterilise is leaf litter collected in the wild to knock down the population of mites it starts with (and I just keep it in the freezer to do that). Everything else goes straight from the bag to the tank.
 
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