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Thread: Temperature and length of time need to heat up cypress mulch

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Posts
    101

    Default Temperature and length of time need to heat up cypress mulch

    Does anyone know the right temperature to heat up mulch to kill eveything in it before you put it into your enclosure? For how long should you do it too? thanks

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Elwood, IL - Southwest Suburb of Chicago (about an hour away)
    Posts
    573

    Default

    I'm not positive, but I read on another post on this site that you should cook it at 400 Deg F for 45 min. Like I said I just read that so I don't know if it is right.
    -Art-

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Posts
    255

    Default

    Thats for dirt... where are u getting your mulch from? If you buy it from a store and it says organic, you're safe.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Posts
    101

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    i thought the organic stuff was made of differnt things. I think I could get the organic but if i cant then what is the temps.

  5. #5
    varnyard Guest

    Default

    Organic means natural. I preset the oven to 350. Use a flat pan, like a cookie sheet. Put a thin layer on the sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, take it out and stir it around. Then put it back in for ten minutes. Then start again. I keep doing this until I enough to fill my cage/tank. This will kill all unwanted pests. As for organic, that means it is natural, not pest free. :wink:

  6. #6

    Default

    i did like 400 for 15 minutes. it sucks but hey gotta do it.
    one time i took a piece of a hollow tree trunk and cut it like a half log. when i baked that thing there was so much moisture in the oven it toook my breath away when i opened it. good thing it wasnt my oven lol. in laws

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Posts
    213

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    is it neccessary to do this with all mulch? what about the stuff sold in pet stores??

    i sure as hell won't be able to do this in my moms oven, i'd have to bound and gag her first or something, lol. mice in the freezer are pushing it already.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Posts
    768

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    I dont bake any of my mulch - it would take way too many trips to the oven (it took hours to bake the sand for my beardeds cage the first time, and thats about 1/6 of the size of my tegu cage ). Its really a safeguard against bringing unwanted pests into your home; if you can live with the risk of invasion by ants and things, then dont heat the stuff up. To be fair I have only had trouble with one bag of mulch bringing ants into the house (we have had one full of peatflies too).

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Posts
    213

    Default

    oh well...i just went and shelled out the ridiculous price for some of the exo-terra mulch. next time i'll get it from a garden center, i'm not too worried about pests as long as they won't harm the tegu. i already have a gnat infestation from the peat in my rainbow boa tank anyway ;p

    could you kill pests by soaking it in very hot water?

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