bugs- Oh no!

When I looked in my baby's cage today I noticed a small bug on the news paper. I only saw one but when there is one there are usually more. So I wisked her away to her holding cage so that i could change the news paper and give her cage a good scrubbing. I rinsed all of her cage decorations with HOT water for about 5 min in my tub. as they dried I took a bit of time to check her for more little bugs but didn't find any. She is about to shed so she probably didn't care much for being fussed over but all in all was a great sport about it. I put printer paper in the bottom of the cage so that I could spot the little intruders easier. I have not yet given her driftwood thingy back yet because I am scared that there are more on it. SO-

1) how do I "bake" her driftwood ?

2) is there anything i have forgotten?

Dial the oven up to 350 and toss it in for about half an hour to 3 hours depending on density. You can soak it first and once it's completely dry you know it's done.

Better yet - buy a can of Provent-A-Mite and treat the enclosure, you won't have to bake the driftwood, any bug that enters the treated enclosure will die.

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Originally Posted by GirDance

Dial the oven up to 350 and toss it in for about half an hour to 3 hours depending on density. You can soak it first and once it's completely dry you know it's done.

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I've never heard of setting the oven that hot. That hot for that long, you stand a good chance of scortching the wood, at the very least. 200 degrees for about an hour is plenty hot.

That said...I concur with Robin... Provent-a-Mite (PAM) is your best bet for preventing a return of any bugs in the enclosure and no need to bake the wood then.

Yeah, Provent-a-Mite is great stuff. I even use it around my doors in the house and I am constantly finding dead flies.. much better than finding live ones :)

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Originally Posted by JLC

I've never heard of setting the oven that hot. That hot for that long, you stand a good chance of scortching the wood, at the very least. 200 degrees for about an hour is plenty hot.

That said...I concur with Robin... Provent-a-Mite (PAM) is your best bet for preventing a return of any bugs in the enclosure and no need to bake the wood then.

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Well when soaked first this method has *always* worked very well, this being from someone who grew up on a beach doing it about once every week to two weeks for various things.

If you WATCH the oven there is no danger of scorching anything. Oh well though, I suppose a lower temp would mean you don't really have to supervise as much.