We have a four tiered rack made with heat tape that we have had for about 6 months. We bought it used off of the person who made it. Everything has been hunky dory with it until a few days ago. I came into the snake room and could smell a weird smokey smell. We checked the rack to find that one of the tapes had shorted out and the tub had melted a huge hole in it. Thankfully our Pinstripe was unharmed (amazingly!) and the aspen bedding hadn't burned. The wood of the shelf was charcoaled. So we put him with our big female (what we were planning on anyways) and our het pied pair we jammed into another space. We re-wired the existing tape and thought we were ok. So tonight my husband went to water the snakes and almost every single tub had melted down and the tape was shorted. We now have 11 snakes jammed into 4 tanks and two tubs. Thankfully we were planning on building a new rack, but it has been fast forwarded hard. What could cause our heat tape to short out and burn like that?

Our two hognoses, nine balls, and one boa all are ok and completely unburned. It's a freaking miracle.