Sterilizing wood

[ikkie78]

Hey everyone...I just bought two big pieces of Mopani driftwood that fit together really nice to make a cool basking spot. My question is what steps do I need to take to sterilize the wood before I can use it in an enclosure?

 

[ErinMeetsMachine]

I clean mine with 1:10 bleach water and then bake it in the over at 350* for 20-30 minutes. That usually takes care of everything hidden in the cracks.

 

[ikkie78]

cool thank you! Do you soak it in the bleach and then rinse it a few times or just wipe it down with the bleach solution?

 

[ErinMeetsMachine]

this may be time consuming and useless, but i spray mine since i have a pre-mixed solution in a bottle. but i'm sure that way will work. I've heard the most important thing is when you rinse it off.. you keep rinsing until you no longer smell bleach. The baking then dries it out quickly and gets rid of anything else. Common sense, but just in case... let the wood cool off before puttingit back in the enclosure. :wink:

 

[ErinMeetsMachine]

don't be surprised if the color darkens by the way.. you ARE cooking wood. the smell is great though.

 

[ikkie78]

Thank you for the help...that will be my weekend project! I'm setting everything up for a beardie now so it will have plenty of time to cool off! Just ordered roaches so it will be a couple months at least but i'm impatient and want to get everything set up now! haha!