# Baking wood??



## yellow dart frog man (Mar 8, 2011)

How long do i bake wood from a forest for too kill the germs on it?? Also what temp do i bake it at?? 
NOTE: This is for a corn snake not a PDF


~ YELLOW DART FROG MAN ~​


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## Raptor22 (Nov 23, 2012)

Evidence points towards baking being ineffective at sterilizing wood. There are a number of reports of live bugs surviving baking and boiling treatments of branches, and insects can tolerate less heat than many bacteria. The only way to really sterilize wood is with steam end pressure in a pressure cooker or autoclave. This is how commercial reptile branches are prepared.

However, people have been using branches untreated or home treated (essentially the same thing) successfully for years. The San Diego uses fresh and unsterilized cuttings of plants and branches in many of their vivs. So, I wouldn't worry too much about it.


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## Scott Richardson (Dec 23, 2010)

Correct. You can't reach a high enough temp without the wood becoming charcoal. So steam is necessary. So throw it in the tub for a day or two and get it waterlogged. then bake at 450 until it just starts to smoke after it is dry. The steam coming out of the wood will do the trick. No bleach just water


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## terris (Jan 1, 2011)

Does this soaking and baking also apply to cork bark? What temp for the oven? Thanks so much for your help!


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## wlrodman (Nov 3, 2015)

I'd like to take exception to Raptor... I think the advice given is a fantastic way to import slugs and all sorts of other want-not's. 

If you can, use a pressure cooker, if not then the soak and bake method is the next best alternative.

Gassing with CO2 is the least effective, but is the only real means of killing pests once a vivarium is planted - without totally ripping out and starting over. (I purchased a CO2 canister just to do this).

You will notice a lot of plant growers will state "raised in frog free environment". The implication to this is that the plants you receive from that grower is slug and pest free. 

If you obtain clippings from a friend, do yourself a favor and put them in their own environment and quarantine to make sure there are no pests. Gassing helps with this process, but it is not fool proof.

Its important to be as careful as you can, because pests will migrate, and starting off on the wrong foot, is both expensive and exasperating.


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## terris (Jan 1, 2011)

Thanks for the reply. However, I bought cork bark from zoo med. To clarify, are you saying there will be bugs and whatnots in processed cork bark that then require steaming and baking to kill?


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## wlrodman (Nov 3, 2015)

You should be good to go on purchased/processed wood.. I would not expect additional processing.

But, another word of caution.... Leaf litter can have slugs/etc in it, and I would not use leaf litter from anywhere without processing it...


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