Reptibark Mold

I purchased a bag of Reptibark and left it in my garage for maybe a week or so. I completely cleaned my ball python's cage, and when I went for the bag, I noticed it had condensation. Some pieces had white spots on it - questionable enough to wonder if it's the bark or mold. I noticed some looked like they had a small piece of spiderweb on them. I assume that's mold. There weren't any globs of mold. I have her on newspaper for the moment.

Are there any treatments I can do for the substrate? I was thinking hot water then letting it dry out?

I clean mind with bleach water then I rinse with clean water. There is a cleaning instructions on the bag.

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Originally Posted by Monsterkx500

I clean mind with bleach water then I rinse with clean water. There is a cleaning instructions on the bag.

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I saw but it mentioned their special whatever. How long do you leave the bleach on? Does it smell like bleach at all when you're done?

It's fungus that grows on damp wood. Since the wood is damp enough that it's growing fungus, and you have newspaper as a backup bedding option, you can either throw the bark away or cook it in your oven for about two hours to dry the wood out and kill the fungus. Since I'm not inclined to throw away money, I'd bake it and then it should be fine to use as bedding. It's up to you, though.

I always wash my bark off with very hot water then bake.

What temperature and time do y'all use?

I do around 175*-200* until its dry or 30-45 mins. Depends on how much I'm baking.

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Originally Posted by Poseidon

I saw but it mentioned their special whatever. How long do you leave the bleach on? Does it smell like bleach at all when you're done?

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I leave it in hot water for about 15 min then run clean hot water through it. It a pain but it work and no bleach smells. I just smell wet bark.