Pangea Hatch Boil Warning

[Natural]

Eggs, and even entire clutches die all the time. Don't take it personal.
There is going to be bacteria and mold in the wild all over the ball python eggs anyway.

As for your experiment--I commend your effort to use science!
Speaking as a Microbiologist:
-If you did not collect and plate those samples using aseptic technique in a sterile biological fume/flow hood then your results will be inherently inaccurate.
-If you had opened and cultured control plates that monitored the environment for the same duration that you were collecting your samples and they were *miraculously clean* (which they wouldn't be) then you could make a subjective argument.
-In addition there is various types of media for growth plates. I am not aware if the same bacteria that grow on TSA or SDA media are also capable of harming snake eggs...1 colony or 1 million, it doesn't make a difference if it is wrong type of mold or bacteria

Anyhow, my two cents!

I appreciate your input on what I did! I definitely agree the experiment was not what I would consider high science, between my frustration at losing the clutch and what I was able to get my hands on I did the best I could to get myself an answer. I guess most of all I was just surprised that anything at all could survive the boiling. I was certain that at the very least that plate should have nothing culturing. I suppose it could be contamination, but until I find myself a hood I'll probably never know haha. I also do agree that I have no idea if the same mold that harmed my eggs was the same that was growing on the dextrose and I'm definitely in no rush to run any tests to see if what's growing on the plates could harm eggs . I guess I could maybe scrape some mold off the eggs and see if it grows on the dextrose but for all I know a separate mold that had spores on the egg could grow and then I'll never know anyway. If you have any ideas for how I could tease any additional answers out of this please let me know! I think even with the potential pitfalls of my little experiment I'll still probably shy away from reusing the substrate ever again. I reused substrate for three clutches and all three ended up having pretty severe mold. Two have already died (they were in the same egg bin from last post) and now a third that's meant to hatch this week has several eggs covered in the same black mold. It's just a very very frustrating time for me.