Will African soft furs get through 1/2 inch hardware cloth?

I recently got 1.4 asfs to breed for my ball pythons. I put them in a 30 gallon tank and the pet supply plus near me doesnt carry screen tops anymore so i need to make one as the alpha female climbs the glass water bottle and jumps out. (quick little bastards lol) I got some 1/2 in hardware cloth left from making hoppers and want to know if they can get through it. Anyone have any experience with that? do i need to go to 1/4 is my question. Thanks!!

Not sure about the hardware cloth, but they are chewing little buggers. Thankfully none of mine are inclined to get near the top of the cage, lol.

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The small ones can squeeze through 1/2 inch. The adults, not so much. I've had it happen...then my cat found the escapee..

I haven't seen it, but I've also heard of ASF hoppers trying to squeeze through the 1/2" cloth, getting stuck and dying. Hearing the description of how the guy had to remove them was enough for me to go buy 1/4" hardware cloth for ASF lids.

I would imagine you could get away with the 1/2 inch if it's only the big ones getting up there. But you could also use two pieces of 1/2" staggered to make it like 1/4" cloth...

Yes babies can escape, you need to use 1/4 with ASF just like you do with mice.

I dont have an issue with escapees. Then again i have a cat and its easy to overlay some quarter inchover it.

I appreciate all the input. I somehow forgot about this post and never came back to it and I had to learn the hard way lol. The babies can indeed squeeze through lol. And they can be very difficult to catch as they can squeeze into some unbelievably tight spots lol