Quote Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl View Post
No. You set the t-stat to whatever gives you no hotter than 95 degrees on the surface the snake can touch. This means the glass under the substrate. You cannot tell people to temp on top. On top of paper towels or aspen or coco will all be different temps on the glass. Also the actual temp of the glass will be different than what your stat is set at most of the time.
Good catch, I typically have paper on top of my hot side since it's easier to get a standard temperature, and the cool side will have cypress in the winter (for humidity) or paper in summer. I've found that 90*F on paper gives about 92*F on the tub/glass so no worries about burning if the snake decides to redecorate the enclosure.