My luck is on a steady decline :(

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Originally Posted by mricyfire

Change about every 3-4 weeks. I used to have much cheaper stuff...but I was on the Zoo-Meds site and they said the Repti-Bark is reusable just soak in very hot water...I was thinking of it as a way to save money...so was gonna give it a try.

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Soaking in very hot water is not going to disinfect your bedding - dispose of it and replace it with new every time you clean your enclosure.

if you really wanna keep your substrate that badly, why don't you take it out, put it in an airtight container and spray it with that walmart bed bug spray or whatever that stuff is. Then put newspaper in the cage and PAM that. If it were me and the choices were 20 dollars worth of substrate or the health of my collection, pretty sure that wouldn't be a hard choice. Just a thought on options.

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Originally Posted by qiksilver

if you really wanna keep your substrate that badly, why don't you take it out, put it in an airtight container and spray it with that walmart bed bug spray or whatever that stuff is. Then put newspaper in the cage and PAM that. If it were me and the choices were 20 dollars worth of substrate or the health of my collection, pretty sure that wouldn't be a hard choice. Just a thought on options.

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Will give it a try.

You can also bake the substrate in the oven, 250* for 30 minutes.

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Originally Posted by waldo

You can also bake the substrate in the oven, 250* for 30 minutes.

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that too, personally I use newspaper as I don't wanna leave anything to chance and I've only had mites once, from a wc candoia, and since then I would rather waste money on new substrate if there's a problem (when I do use bark of some sort) but mainly I just use old newspaper and I change it rather often, meaning any time it's soiled or even just wet. But really husbandry shouldn't be about luck at all, with that said, good luck on getting things under control.

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Originally Posted by qiksilver

But really husbandry shouldn't be about luck at all, with that said, good luck on getting things under control.

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I'd have to agree - good husbandry has nothing to do with "luck".

Also--if cost AND cleanliness is a concern--you can't go wrong with newspaper for substrate! It's cost-effective and clean :)

Edit: It also doesn't sound like the bugs you're describing are MITES (as in BP-mites), but probably some sort of wood-bugs you got in the substrate you bought. You could try baking the substrate. Or, as I said prior--use newspaper from here on out :)

Everyone seems to love provent a mite. Personally I hate the stuff. I think it's too strong for what it's needed for. It definatly kills mites, but it kills other stuff too and for a very long time. I've killed mites, crickets, fruitflies, golddust day geckos, leopard geckos and even bullsnakes with it. No, I've never lost any ball pythons with it, but with the other stuff I've killed with it I gotta wonder what the long term effects could be.

And yes, before anyone starts flinging the accusations, I followed the label directions TO THE LETTER.

Personally I'll keep using sevin dust.

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Originally Posted by MarkS

Everyone seems to love provent a mite. Personally I hate the stuff. I think it's too strong for what it's needed for. It definatly kills mites, but it kills other stuff too and for a very long time. I've killed mites, crickets, fruitflies, golddust day geckos, leopard geckos and even bullsnakes with it. No, I've never lost any ball pythons with it, but with the other stuff I've killed with it I gotta wonder what the long term effects could be.

And yes, before anyone starts flinging the accusations, I followed the label directions TO THE LETTER.

Personally I'll keep using sevin dust.

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That sucks man sorry to hear that...I think I agree with Azure..they dont appear to be mites and dont mess with the snake at all.

Gonna bake first...before i attempt the other things...Any advice on that? Never baked mulch before...and I REALLY dont want to end up baking my apartment as well...after bake how long should it sit? When I replace im guessing I should spray with water...

I don't use mulches anymore because they are always carrying little bugs. They probably won't harm my snakes but who wants little buggys runing around enclosure and home! Also if you get used to seeing wood bugs you may not pay attention or notice mites if you do get them. Aspen seems to get everywhere and makes clean up time consuming. Now I use newspaper for most of my collection and paper towels for my little guys and quarantines.