# sterilizing driftwood



## katie30040 (Jan 18, 2006)

I have a couple of pieces of driftwood i want to use for a viv. how do you sterilize it? any special method?


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## Frank H (Nov 3, 2005)

You can boil it in a pot, or if the wood is too big, put it in a bucket and dump boiling water on it. I wouldnt use any chemicals.


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## Stratusfaction (Mar 7, 2006)

You can put it in the oven at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes. I do this all the time for my bearded dragons so they have some to climb on.  

-David


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Boil it, bake it, let it dry completely, any of them will work. Chytrid fungus can live through the cross section of the wood, so how ever you sterilize, it needs to be able to work on all of the wood, not just the surface.


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## Guest (May 11, 2006)

You have to sterilize! :?


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Who said not to? Am I missing something?


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## Guest (May 11, 2006)

No one  , I just never realized it   

I only recently started using drift wood. I bought my first pieces last week.


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## npaull (May 8, 2005)

> You have to sterilize!


I disagree with this... (I understand you weren't advocating so much as exclaiming surprise that you had to [?]) ... I've been using carefully *cleaned* driftwood in my vivs for a long time, and have never had problems. I think sterilizing with chemicals is clearly potentially dangerous, and sterilizing with boiling water is pointless.

Bacteria will repopulate pretty much anything within a few days, at most, of it being "sterilized" if it is placed in an unsterile environment. Macrofauna, such as insects, can be an issue if you fail to clean properly. Scrubbing the pieces and waiting for awhile is a good way to help limit this. Chytrid can be addressed (but not eliminated) by drying, and as someone else said (I don't know if this is true) may survive inside even against sterilization efforts. I understand the rationale behind sterilizing a piece of wood (to remove any potential wild bacteria, etc) but in practice I really think it's just silly - SO many "foreign" bacteria are going to be in the vivarium shortly after its setup as to make any pre-setup efforts at "sterilization" more or less pointless.

Lastly, boiling a piece of driftwood can kill a whole host of spores of cool mosses, mushrooms, etc that might otherwise bloom and grow on a piece of wood.

I make an effort to sterilize equipment that has been exposed to "suspicious" or diseased animals before using it on new animals. I make an effort to sterilize some cages for the same reason. I boil my leaf litter to kill slugs, snails, etc so I don't get pests in my vivs. I do nothing more than scrub and wash most other cage furnishings, and I've never had problems. FWIW...


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

^I'm with him. I let any wood I'm going to use dry completely then rinse it with water to remove dirt/debris before I put it in a tank.


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## Guest (May 13, 2006)

defaced said:


> ^I'm with him. I let any wood I'm going to use dry completely then rinse it with water to remove dirt/debris before I put it in a tank.


I'm afraid that was all I did. I just didnt realize I should have given it a good scrub.


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## npaull (May 8, 2005)

> I'm afraid that was all I did. I just didnt realize I should have given it a good scrub.


I really wouldn't worry. In general, I think it's a good idea to dry, wash, and scrub, but if you just dried it and rinsed it, and didn't see anything that really needed scrubbing, you'll almost undoubtedly be fine. That's just my opinion, of course, but I do have years of enclosures saying it works.


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## Dane (Aug 19, 2004)

All the WC wood that I use is dead, and comes from arid climates, so the cross section is usually dry. I bake it for 4 hours at 250*F.


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