Mold on Driftwood

I had a nice piece of driftwood in my Irian Jaya's tub. He pretty much stays on it all the time. Its his favorite spot in the tub. Last night, when I moved the driftwood to his new vision cage, I noticed that it was covered in a green and white mold!! This was not there as of a week ago. The humidity is around 70% in my apartment, a little higher than normal, but not much.
I immediately put the wood in a bleach solution and soaked it overnight. My questions are:
1. Do I need to be worried about respiratory problems since he was exposed to the mold?
2. Should I reuse the driftwood now that its been bleached? There is still the fuzziness to the piece when you touch it even though it should be dead.
3. What do you think caused the mold outbreak? I should add, i had cypress mulch in the tub as well.

Bleach will kill the mould but it is a real hard one to get completely. I might just for over kills sake cook it too. If you had something like CHG or F10 I might dose it with that too.

Personally I would sand away the area where the mould was and still use it. But I would also keep an eye out of RI I might even go so far as bumping temps a touch (ambient and cool). If you on the off chance do get it get a culture for sure most anti biotics do nothing for fungal.

Mould spores... They could have come from anywhere, boxes to the mulch anything it is air born so basically anywhere in the area, keep an eye you don't have any on walls or flooring carpet? ect.

Just to be clear i don't think RI to be likely it usually takes source plus low temps and stress. But better safe than sorry.

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

Bleach will kill the mould but it is a real hard one to get completely. I might just for over kills sake cook it too. If you had something like CHG or F10 I might dose it with that too.

Personally I would sand away the area where the mould was and still use it. But I would also keep an eye out of RI I might even go so far as bumping temps a touch (ambient and cool). If you on the off chance do get it get a culture for sure most anti biotics do nothing for fungal.

Mould spores... They could have come from anywhere, boxes to the mulch anything it is air born so basically anywhere in the area, keep an eye you don't have any on walls or flooring carpet? ect.

Just to be clear i don't think RI to be likely it usually takes source plus low temps and stress. But better safe than sorry.

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Thanks. I'm going to bake it too. Good idea.
I'll keep my eye out. Its an older building; probably built in the '60s, so it probably came from my apartment.
My ambient temps are 82 and his warm spot is about 92. He never stays on the warm side though. I'll keep my eye on him and hopefully its ok. I figure, they are probably exposed to much worse in the wild, however, their immune system is definitely a lot stronger in the wild as well.

I actually don't know much about carpets... but generally a lift of a degree or two on the cool end will help bump up the immune system temporarily and for a few days it might be worth it. I am certainly not a vet and not sure it is needed but temp increase or not avoid stress over the next week or so. I think it just a precaution but can can't see a few degrees for 7-10 days hurting either. I am sure he will be fine.

Your temps are too high as well as your humidity. Try to offer a cool spot of 76-78 and a hot spot no higher than 86-90...86 being the better. Your snake is never on the warm end because it's too hot. Good luck and post pics.

The humidity combined with the high temps will cause your driftwood to mold.