Substrate rundown, opinions?

(second post, accidentally posted under wrong category)

I only have to get a substrate and an UTH w/ thermostat and my habitat will be ready for a snake, but I'm getting a lot of contradicting information on substrates. These are the most frequent pros and cons I've seen from each type on amazon.com:

(This is the order of my favorites from most likely to use to least):

Cypress - good for humidity, but seems to frequently have bugs
Eco earth coco fiber- good for humidity, seems to have bugs, molds, people reporting snakes eating it (I'm assuming they eat what is stuck to prey...)
Aspen - easy to clean, doesn't hold humidity well, molds, bugs
reptile carpet - no humidity control , dye comes off if wet, chemical odor, washable
Paper towel - easy to clean, no bugs, not as nice for a display cage

So, is there a way to freeze or bake off any mites/bugs/molds with the cypress mulch or Eco earth, as these are the two that I would prefer to use? I want to do what is best for the (eventual) snake.

SORRY FOR THE DUPLICATE THREAD

I was curious as well as I had been using aspen (I live in Florida so the humidity is always high anyway)... But I found wood mites.

Here's the link to my post.
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...best-substrate

i did some research on the repti-zorb liners and decided I'm gonna try it next. Still got aspen for another cage clean or two, but I'm gonna order the liners soon. I'll let you know what I think of them.

Good old fashioned newspaper. Not very pretty for display. But it is mostly free, plentiful, and easy to change.

Newspaper or paper towels.

Cypress mulch has been awesome for my BPs sheds, as well as my crested gecko and fat tailed gecko. I've never had any bugs, but I suppose you could bake them off just like any other wood.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by sneklady

Cypress mulch has been awesome for my BPs sheds, as well as my crested gecko and fat tailed gecko. I've never had any bugs, but I suppose you could bake them off just like any other wood.

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True. Maybe a short ride in the microwave.

I know that the parasitic snake mite is not the type people are seeing in the mulch, but even some non-parasitic mites bite (people and animals) and since I already dealt with chigger bites after camping earlier this year, I REALLY don't want to ever see another mite!

Would putting the cypress bark in the freezer for a few days prior to setting up the habitat do any good? A lot of bugs don't take a hard freeze well and have to burrow, but I don't know about mites.

another option if you are that worried would be to treat your substrate with Prevent-A-Mite