Frustrated beyond belief... help me out!

[BMorrison]

Well I will be baking all of the wood in his cage for 2-3 hours at 250 degrees. I will also be cleaning the cage out again and dousing everything with Provent A Mite and then I will put him in a tub with a hide and a heat lamp for a few hours with some wet towels on one side to see if he rubs any off.

[missi182]

Just keep a good eye on the wood. If it starts to smoke, turn off the oven. I don't know if this is such a great idea but I have been lazy and dampened the wood then stuck it in the microwave for 2 minutes. It is darn hot when it comes out, I dont think any mites could live through that but I could be mistaken. I found a mite on my bp one day and tore his enclosure apart, diluted bleached all the plants, washed the tank with diluted bleach, and microwaved his wooden hides. I have not seen another mite luckily and I hope it stays that way. This was about 3 weeks ago and I have been watching closely for any. If I find another I will have to pick up some PAM

[Brimstone111888]

LOL microwaving wood probably isn't a good idea. Baking at 250 for 30 minutes is more than enough.

[missi182]

LOL whats the real hurt in microwaving the wood? I guess it could catch fire....but it could do that in the over too couldnt it? I watch it the whole time its in there.....still it does sound funny doesnt it lol.

[hoo-t]

Does this mean I shouldn't put paper plates or paper towels or cardboard food containers in my microwave anymore?

Somebody that advised against putting wood in the microwave please explain the dangers to me. I thought microwaves acted directly on the water contained in the food (or wood) that you place in it. Doesn't that mean that when the water is all evaporated out, the wood would no longer be heated????

All this assumes there are no nails or screws in the wood (metal in a microwave).

I really don't want to be a smarta**, but come on.

Steve

[missi182]

There is a very big possibility that I will sound like an idiot, but seriously I am asking, is it unsafe to put the wood in the microwave?? The above post confused me a tid, I dont know if the whole thing is sarcastic or not. What is more safe about putting it in the oven??

[hoo-t]

There is a very big possibility that I will sound like an idiot, but seriously I am asking, is it unsafe to put the wood in the microwave?? The above post confused me a tid, I dont know if the whole thing is sarcastic or not. What is more safe about putting it in the oven??

Yes, I was being sarcastic. Microwaves are made to be able to use paper plates, paper towels, paper containers, etc in. It works because the microwaves work on the water molecules in the food. No more water, no more heat. As long as there is water there, its not going to catch fire. A paper plate or paper towel would catch fire much quicker than a chunk of wood. It just doesn't happen.

Search on google using the following search terms -

microwave wood -cart -stand

You'll find that people use microwaves in curing wood, bending wood, and other processes that involve removing the moisture from wood. The one warning that I might heed is that some woods may produce toxic fumes. I haven't researched that, so I really don't know.

By the way, there is water in mites and mite eggs. If you microwave a mite infested chunk of wood, the bugs will get nuked!

I would say that it is NOT more safe to put it into a conventional oven. It uses direct heat, which could cause a fire if the temp is raised to the combustion temperature of the wood. A quick search on google suggests that the temp would have to be 395 degrees or higher. I suggest doing your own reseach before trying it though.

Steve

[BMorrison]

So bake it then or not? I got that from Melissa Kaplan's article on mites.

[hoo-t]

So bake it then or not? I got that from Melissa Kaplan's article on mites.

Well, as you can tell from my previous posts, I'll go against the grain and say microwave it. You can soak it first to increase the water content, which will allow it to heat up. But I really think just sticking it in there dry would kill any bugs.

Again, do your research before baking it in a gas or electric conventional oven. Google for combustion temperature of wood (the specific type of wood you have would be even better - oak, pine, etc). But to me, the microwave would be safer. Shoot if your not sure if its safe, throw an empty (dry) paper plate in your microwave, cook it for a couple minutes and see if its hot. Then get it wet and try it again. Just be careful after you cook it wet. Don't want you to get scalded by the steam!

Steve

[starmom]

So bake it then or not? I got that from Melissa Kaplan's article on mites.

Have you thought about using a different substrate while you get the mite situation under control? It would be helpful to use paper towels; easier to see the little buggers!