why you should always bake or boil you indoor substrate

naturalman91

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due to a recent infestation of gnats and ants i decided to change my substrate out but to bake it first to rid it of any eggs or bugs it already had and boy am i glad i did, right in the middle of one of the bricks as soon as it expanded there was a snake tail that had obviously been smashed offsnake 2.jpg my camera is very bad and it is very dirty but it's a snake tail for sure i checked it out and you can very clearly see scales
 

leigti

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Yuck! I guess I never thought about baking or boiling the substrate before I put it in the enclosure. I might change my mind about that :) what temperature do you bake it at? Do you boil or bake it before or after you expand it with water.? I have heard about baking or boiling it to reuse it in an enclosure.
 

Levi the Leopard

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Wow! That's an interesting find...

I've always baked my coir before using it. But I've never come across any foreign objects.

(when baking the coir bricks, I do 4-6 hours at 250F before hydrating them with water ;) don't bake it at 400F or it can catch on fire! Isn't that right, @KatieandKyle ;) :p)
 

naturalman91

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Wow! That's an interesting find...

I've always baked my coir before using it. But I've never come across any foreign objects.

(when baking the coir bricks, I do 4-6 hours at 250F before hydrating them with water ;) don't bake it at 400F or it can catch on fire! Isn't that right, @KatieandKyle ;) :p)

i almost caught fire like 10 mins shy of 4 hours lol
Yuck! I guess I never thought about baking or boiling the substrate before I put it in the enclosure. I might change my mind about that :) what temperature do you bake it at? Do you boil or bake it before or after you expand it with water.? I have heard about baking or boiling it to reuse it in an enclosure.

just as Team Gomberg said 250 for 4 hours just be careful and don't leave it alone and check it on
 

Ashes

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Ugh I wish I'd read this beforehand. I think mine smells because of my water, though. I was using the coco bricks but it smelled like rotten eggs after only a few weeks. So I switched to coco chips - yeah, just mixed that around the other day and it also smells like rotten eggs. So, I'm thinking my water sucks?.... :(

Do you bake everything, not JUST the coco bricks?
 

naturalman91

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Ugh I wish I'd read this beforehand. I think mine smells because of my water, though. I was using the coco bricks but it smelled like rotten eggs after only a few weeks. So I switched to coco chips - yeah, just mixed that around the other day and it also smells like rotten eggs. So, I'm thinking my water sucks?.... :(

Do you bake everything, not JUST the coco bricks?

i just bake the bricks at 250 for 4 hours and keep checking on them and never leave them alone ,i've never had the problem of smelling like rotten eggs if you feel its your water you can get it tested, after seeing the bricks cracked in half after baking i will never not bake them now there was a lot of stuff in the middles i even found a couple egg sacks i baked the bricks then expanded them with boiling water just to be safe but i was tired of bugs i had ants and gnat everywhere in my living room it sucked
 

Yellow Turtle01

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Eww.
I don't usually do either (bake or boil, before or after) because I use pill bugs (read it here!) to control my nats, but, I dodn;t think there might be other stuff it there :confused:
 

naturalman91

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Eww.
I don't usually do either (bake or boil, before or after) because I use pill bugs (read it here!) to control my nats, but, I dodn;t think there might be other stuff it there :confused:

there's a lot of more then gnats in them lol from my understanding it's not picked through to much it's just pressed into bricks and shipped
 

Levi the Leopard

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pill bugs and earthworms were always added into my substrate..after baking. Whether the pre use baking or the mini ecosystem of good bugs, I never dealt with enough "bad/annoying" bugs to be considered a problem. ;) So something worked!

coco coir has always smelled amazing to me! I've done a couple different batches and each time it smells like yummy coco nutty-ness! If it smells like rotten eggs, something's not right
 

Yellow Turtle01

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pill bugs and earthworms were always added into my substrate..after baking. Whether the pre use baking or the mini ecosystem of good bugs, I never dealt with enough "bad/annoying" bugs to be considered a problem. ;) So something worked!

coco coir has always smelled amazing to me! I've done a couple different batches and each time it smells like yummy coco nutty-ness! If it smells like rotten eggs, something's not right
I like the way it smells too:D Very fragrant . I've tried to get earthworms to live in my enclosure, but they always die! I'd like to keep them alive so my coir can get all nice and nutritious for my plants. Does the coir need to be wetter?
 

Ashes

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pill bugs and earthworms were always added into my substrate..after baking. Whether the pre use baking or the mini ecosystem of good bugs, I never dealt with enough "bad/annoying" bugs to be considered a problem. ;) So something worked!

coco coir has always smelled amazing to me! I've done a couple different batches and each time it smells like yummy coco nutty-ness! If it smells like rotten eggs, something's not right
That's the only thing I can think of is it's my water...... Nobody else thinks it smells nasty like rotten eggs on here.... :(
 

Elohi

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I have never baked mine but I've also never had bug issues with coir. I did have them with organic garden soil though. I had a MAJOR fungus gnat problem that I finally got under control when I put a bunch of rollie pollies in that substrate. (Was for my boxie)
I don't know why the pollies fixed the problem because that isn't why I added them lol.
 

tortdad

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You could freeze the coir too. I used to do that to bird seed for the same reason.
 

leigti

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You could freeze the coir too. I used to do that to bird seed for the same reason.
I like the freezing idea, that would be much easier for me to do. Maybe freeze it and then add boiling water when I expand it. That might be a good combination of both ways.
 
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