I take rocks from outdoors and sterilize them for use in my cages all the time. I'm thinking I want to get some wood from outside and do the same. Is there anything I should or should not look for? any certain kinds of trees/wood I need to avoid?
Wood from outside
- Thread starter lisa127
- Start date
Likely want to avoid Cedar or Pine in an enclosed/closed in space...I would be sure to really give the wood a few look overs to make sure you are not bringing in any funky critters...
I threw some Maple branches into my oven the lowest setting for 20 minutes; read a lot and that was the consensus minimum. Made my whole house smell like a smoker (which is why I stopped at 20 minutes) and 5-months later, each day when I spray the gecko vivarium, it still smells like burnt wood. Alternative was that I bring in bugs or disease... Try waiting 'til Spring when you can open your windows to bake wood or researching natural soaks instead.
Some people think that freezing wood kills anything, but living so far north, things have adapted to freezing temperatures and likely wouldn't die.
Some people think that freezing wood kills anything, but living so far north, things have adapted to freezing temperatures and likely wouldn't die.
Yeah, I'm not far from you. I'm in the Cleveland area, so that might be a problem here too. I'm wondering about boiling though, if it's small enough. When I buy those half logs from the petstore for lizards, I boil them in water on the stovetop first. That works. I had to do that because once when I bought a new one the gecko enclosure ended up with wood lice. Boiling the half log took care of that problem.
I like driftwood because it has been in water then baked by the sun. I rinse it off well, and leave it in the rain on rocks then let the sun dry it again.
As far as rocks from the outside, just rinse them off; you can run them through the dishwasher if you want.
As far as rocks from the outside, just rinse them off; you can run them through the dishwasher if you want.
