Substrate rundown, opinions?

[Crowfingers]

(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

[D3lacr0ix]

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.

[ALBINO IGUANA]

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

[Yodawagon]

Newspaper or paper towels.

[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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[Yodawagon]

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.

Sent from my XT1042 using Tapatalk

True. Maybe a short ride in the microwave.

[Crowfingers]

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.

[jclaiborne]

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