Container temps

I built two racks for my son's snakes. One for corns and the other for his ball pythons. He uses aspen for bedding in the containers. Should the hotspot over the flexwatt have the proper temp with or without the bedding? I noticed some snakes move the bedding and others do not. Does this even matter?

Have your hot spot right on the plastic. If you have the hot spot on top of the substrate then the temp under the substrate is probably much higher, high enough to burn.

If the snake needs more warmth they will burrow or move the substrate.

Use a thin layer of aspen in the tubs so theirs not a huge temp difference from top to bottom. keep the thermometer probe on the bottom of the tub and tape the thermostat probe directly to the flexwatt and you should be golden.