Is it still salvageable?

Upon closer inspection of what seemed to be white splotches of poop in my P cancerides tank, I realized they were clusters of eggs. Sugar ant eggs.. They had made an entire ant farm along the side of the tank that, of course, isn't easily visible. I lured the grump out of his burrow and into a glad container after doing so, I lifted up the bark which is the roof of his burrow and found even MORE eggs and ants!! I searched for a thread concering sugar ants and they said to completely replace the substrate. I have also left droplets of sugar ant killer (I don't have any Ts small enough to eat them so they should all be fine) around their scent trails ;P
The question is, that's ALOT of substrate to replace (almost half of a 10 gallon tank), and I don't want to have to spend extra money unless absolutely necessary, can I freeze the cocofiber, killing off the ants, place it in an oven to warm it back up, and use it again? Or will the slew of dead eggs and ants just cause mites and mold problems?

This is a complete guess.. but microwave maybe?

i think the cocofiber might set on fire lol but it's been in the freezer since last night so I'm pretty sure there's no return for them. I'm mostly wondering if the dead bodies of ants and eggs will cause problems with mold and mites

I think you should just get new sub.
Don't get it at a pet store, get it at a gardening center so it's way cheaper.

after you freeze and or nuke the fiber you can probably use isopods to clean up the rest of the bodies and mold.

Hobo said:

I think you should just get new sub.
Don't get it at a pet store, get it at a gardening center so it's way cheaper.

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Well the LPS by my house has ecoearth bricks for less than $4. I wouldn't have anything to put that big bag of substrate in to keep it mite free though :/

Kungfujoe said:

after you freeze and or nuke the fiber you can probably use isopods to clean up the rest of the bodies and mold.

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I didn't think of that! I may not use this fiber again anytime soon but maybe I could just use it for an isopod source for now! There are literally TONS running around the woods here

Dr Acula said:

I wouldn't have anything to put that big bag of substrate in to keep it mite free though :/

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Surely it can't be too difficult for you to acquire a few gallon sized ziploc bags can it? This is what I use to store all my extra unused substrate in.

Very true! I decided to hunt down some isopods and let them clean up the mess