I HATE aspen. I know some people on here use it successfully, but I hate the look of it, it doesn't hold moisture well, and those sharp little pieces get stuck to everything. They would even get stuck in the corners of my garters' mouths (several of mine like to rub their faces dry after drinking).
Some people use eco-earth, and it seems to work fine, but does get kind of messy when at the humidity you'd want for a BP. I only use it for tropical enclosures where it's constantly pretty soaked or things like tarantulas that you never really do a lot of handling or tank changing. I do keep my turtle on it because she has to dig, and there is always a trail of it across the floor whenever I get her out.
I use newspaper for my garters, because I have several that don't have perfect seals on their mouths, and anything dusty or particulate would always get stuck to their gums. I even had a couple mouth infections from it. Plus, they really seem to like having the different layers paper to hide under. I wouldn't recommend it for a BP because of the humidity needs though. That and there's really no in-between; it's either dry or soaked.
For my BP I use cypress mulch. It holds humidity well and will occasionally get some debris on the snake, but it's worked well for me.
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