# Dessication as a means of sterilization?



## sports_doc (Nov 15, 2004)

Quick question:

Can a thorough air drying be considered a reasonable means of 'sterilizing' tank media?

Specifically with these items? 

1: LECA and other gravel.
2: COCO and "dirt"
3: Wood and tanks/decor

Here is the real question.....I often take down any tank that served as a QT tank, or any tank in which any animal is lost without explanation. I store the LECA and Media etc separately and let it dry. I mean really dry, like for 6 mo, sometimes 1 year in the case of old tanks.

Now can I assume this very dessicated matter is free from frog pathogens?

It is a simply matter to wash/rinse tanks again, but with Physan20 or Bleach etc, there are many wash/rinse steps and LECA I usually bake in the oven for a hour at 300F [wife hates that] and Dirt/COCO I toss....but do I have to?

Anyway....I appreciate your thoughts on the matter////


----------



## Julio (Oct 8, 2007)

i waould say no, one thing you can do now that is warm is wrap it up in a black large trash bag ans let it sit outside in teh sun for a few days, it will get hot enough in there to sterelize it


----------



## frogface (Feb 20, 2010)

With all the nooks and cranies in LECA, I don't know if I would trust that it had dried all the way to the center. I bet you could bake it though.

eta: When I reuse LECA for my orchids, I soak it in strong bleach water for a couple days, rinse it a couple days, dry it out. But that's for plants, not frogs.


----------



## devin mac (Oct 4, 2004)

well, one way you could find out, would be to alow a tank to simply dry for a long period of time. rehydrate it and send that sample out for pathogen testing?


----------



## MichelleSG (May 1, 2010)

You might also add a uv light step to try and get rid of bad fuguses. Of course there are crevices that might not be available to light so that might not work. I'm pretty firmly in the 10% bleach camp. Not sure how re-usable that is for frogs though. We can buy LECA locally here for a very decent price so I don't think I'd even bother trying to sterilize it.


----------



## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Hi Shawn,

I wouldn't call it sterlized as anything with a resistent/resting spore or resting stage is going to survive the drying period. With that said, this method will kill a number of the other potential problems for the frogs. It is unlikely that some of what were more commonly reported amphibian pathogens like Aeromonas hydrophilia are going to survive this as long as it gets truly dry for a significant period of time (I would suggest at least three months once it is totally dry (see this abstract ScienceDirect - Analytica Chimica Acta : Susceptibility of bacterial strains to desiccation: a simple method to test their stability in microbiological reference materials )

and Wiley InterScience :: Session Cookies )

Now there I'm not sure about persistence in the long term for some worm eggs but wetting and then dessication is a good potential method of killing off hookworm larva (see Persistence of Hookworm Larvae in Soil -- Beaver 2 (1): 102 -- American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene ) and at least some types of hookworm's eggs do not tolerate drying well. 

Some comments,

Ed


----------



## Joe Nickerson (Nov 14, 2004)

How about freezing below 0 degrees Fahrenheit for a extended time period. I know this will kill mites and there eggs over 7 days. What about parasites? This wouldn't give you the order that baking would. Thoughts?


----------



## kristy55303 (Apr 27, 2008)

a lot of parasites can withstand freezing temps for months. coccidia, giardia being a few with a very tough cellular wall  boiling, baking, bleaching IMO is the best way to go. Roundworm and hookworm usually prefer damp areas to survive i believe and aren't as "sticky" as things like coccidia and giardia cysts can be. Not the expert here though just saying


----------



## sports_doc (Nov 15, 2004)

Darn,

Doesnt look like there is an easy way out. 

PITA back to bleaching, baking [and aggravating the wife], and throwing out perfectly 'good' sphagnum/coco/soil....


----------



## Boondoggle (Dec 9, 2007)

sports_doc said:


> Darn,
> 
> Doesnt look like there is an easy way out.
> 
> PITA back to bleaching, baking [and aggravating the wife], and throwing out perfectly 'good' sphagnum/coco/soil....


Yeah, I'm in the same boat. I think with anything other than leaves, it just gets difficult to know if it's truly dessicated. Even though I haven't had many suspicious deaths, I've been upgrading a lot of tanks lately and bleaching/cooking/trashing everything is a drag...especially the trashing.

On the "up-side", I discovered that bark flats actually smell good when cooked.


----------



## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

kristy55303 said:


> a lot of parasites can withstand freezing temps for months. coccidia, giardia being a few with a very tough cellular wall  boiling, baking, bleaching IMO is the best way to go. Roundworm and hookworm usually prefer damp areas to survive i believe and aren't as "sticky" as things like coccidia and giardia cysts can be. Not the expert here though just saying


Hi Kristy,

Check out the abstracts in my post as hookworm larva survive better under drier conditions.. 

Freezing for a minimum of two weeks will kill many of the parasites like roundworm and tapeworm. This method is used to kill parasites in the body of an animal. 

Ed


----------

