Can you mist paper towel substrate

[Squirtle44]

So I have my ball pythons in tubs and they humidity is ~40%. I use paper towel substrate and want to continue using it given how easy it is to both get and clean. I want to increase the humidity to the 50-60% range that it should be. I was going to mist the tubs, but I read that misting paper towel substrate is bad. I can't find anything on why it is bad to mist paper towel substrate.

Does anyone have any experience with doing such or does anyone know why it is considered bad to mist paper towel substrate?

[WmHrbst]

Depending on the paper towel, misting the paper towel can make it break apart easy and become messy.

I use the 'Shop' style towel style for my hatchling tubs, and I use clean white packing paper for everything else.

[redshepherd]

Basically the substrate should be dry, because living on constantly damp substrate can lead to scale rot... If you're having humidity problems, you can put another bowl with a wet paper towel in it, it creates more surface area for evaporation.

Or if you need to up humidity even more during shed, just make a humid hide with some sphagnum moss pressed inside the sides of the hide. Or you can just mist the lid of the tub.

[cchardwick]

When I had mites I used several layers of newspaper and topped it off with paper towels and misted the whole thing really good. I never had problems with it breaking apart. And if you are drying out real fast I don't think you have to worry about it being too wet for very long.