Freak heater accident, lost a lot of snakes...

[Montessa Python]

Last night around 10:30 I checked on everyone before going to bed.
Temps read at 77.
I set the room heater to 78 and went to bed.
Got up at 6 and go to turn on the lights/heat for my horned lizard....
temp reads 98....
I start fans, and start checking snakes.
We lost our rescue big reduce pattern bp, Lucille Ball
Another rescue bp.
My special rescue/needs mini dwarf albino cal king- Mini Me.
My nelson's milk snake, my pueblan milk snake, both yearlings.
and my horned lizard.
I was lucky to save another BP- Pete and a mexican black king- Monte Negra.
I got Pete into room temp water in the sink, and got the room down in temp as well. Pete is chilling with a cool water bottle in his tub.
My larger kings, and bull snake are fine.
But in total we lost 5....
My poor Lucille, and dear Mini Me...
I want to cry but I have my remaining snakes and asf's to ensure are safe and healthy...
so I am crying on the inside.
Montessa Python

[waltah!]

I'm so sorry that happened
I always worry about that using a space heater here in good old New England. I'm glad you were able to save the others.

[Jared]

Sooo sorry to hear that. What Thermostats were you using? I'm shocked that 98 for that short amount of time would take the lives of BP's (the others I do not know enough about).

Again, so sorry for your loss.

[dapike1979]

Sorry for your loss..

[Seneschal]

That's terrible! I'm so sorry for your loss. I wish you could have saved more, but... *hug*

[WingedWolfPsion]

I'm so sorry, that would be a horrible thing to find! *Reminds self to set all herpstats back to 'beep loudly when the temps are wrong'*

Heater accidents seem to be a major cause of accidental death in reptiles. It's a shame these devices aren't more reliable, and you can never tell which one might fail next.

I, too, probably wouldn't have hooked up a second thermostat to a space heater, because many of them fail to function if you do. Thankfully my herpstats will yell if the temps go too high, even if the devices they control aren't the cause of it.

Most of products that can alert you to temperature changes aren't very cheap. I found this one:
http://www.temperaturealert.com/product_p/tm-std30.htm
I may be getting one of these in the future.

The Herpstats aren't cheap, either--the Herpstat II is the cheapest model that includes an audible alarm, and it's 200 bucks.

This is the cheapest temperature alarm device I found:
http://www.drillspot.com/products/44...perature_Alarm
At least it can alert if room temps rise too high, but it's not very versatile. At 37 bucks, it's not horribly expensive, though.

My biggest fear is that I won't HEAR the herpstats going off, because they are in another room, and if fans are going...you just can't hear the beeping. My roomate can hear them in HER room, but if she's not home, no one would. I may be asking my husband to rig something up so we can hear it in our room, or maybe get a baby monitor.

[Lucas339]

sorry for you losses. i had a similar thing happen to me.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

I don't understand. Was it a room heater or a rack heater? while 98 degrees is high, it is NOT high enough to kill any snakes in a couple of hours..

[Lucas339]

I don't understand. Was it a room heater or a rack heater? while 98 degrees is high, it is NOT high enough to kill any snakes in a couple of hours..

pretty sure it was a room heater.

[WingedWolfPsion]

We can't know whether the temperatures reached points even higher than that, as well. 98 is pretty critical if there is no way for the animal to escape it, and the animal has much lower temp requirements. It does depend on the species--ball pythons have a fairly narrow comfort zone, but I agree it's surprising to lose them to that temp so quickly.
My guess is that the temperatures were even higher than that for part of the time.