# Bog Wood- how long to 'bake' it and at what temp?



## cpiggott22 (Apr 1, 2009)

As title please! I'm in the middle of my dart viv and just remembered I've had a lovely piece of bog wood out in the garden for over a year. I gave it a good scrub and have literally just bunged it into the oven at gas mark 3.5. Will this damage the wood? I don't want to turn it black as it's such a beautiful colour but I am worried about parasites and other nasties. How long should I leave it for and is the temp right? Cheers guys


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## Ben W (Nov 18, 2008)

I never have put mine in the oven as it seems to split, but the best thing i have found is to fill the kettle right up and boil it and tip it over the wood, just be careful doing it!!!

Ben


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## cpiggott22 (Apr 1, 2009)

Hiya . I gave it a mega scrub with the shower ultra hot and I've just turned the oven off. It was in there an hour and fortunately hasn't cracked which would have been such a shame as I've been saving the wood for something special like this. I'm almost done with the viv now but it's taken me about a week with all the silicone and faffing about waiting for it to dry. I'll post pics when it's done so you can see this infamous foam background *grrr* :lol2:


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## andaroo (Nov 14, 2008)

To steralise wood you need to bake it at a low temperature for a long time. 120 degrees C (the temperature that kills all bacteria) for 3 hours.


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## Ben W (Nov 18, 2008)

yeah thats ok, unless you have trapped moisture inside and the wood explodes in the oven, and yes i have scars to prove it, ovens are for food not wood etc


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## chrism (Jul 5, 2007)

All the bog wood i've used in dart vivs have 10% bleach wash, then as Ben says, boiling water. Never had any problems this way, and few months later also had mushrooms, ferns etc pop out of the wood.


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## andaroo (Nov 14, 2008)

Ben W said:


> yeah thats ok, unless you have trapped moisture inside and the wood explodes in the oven, and yes i have scars to prove it, ovens are for food not wood etc


you keep an eye on it for the duration its in the oven, 120 degrees isnt hot enough to combust wood.


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## Ben W (Nov 18, 2008)

the wood doesnt combust,thats true, more the expansion of the water vapour trapped deep within the wood


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## andaroo (Nov 14, 2008)

*Wood Sanitation*

Wood sanitation is an absolute necessity for all pieces that are collected from the outdoors for use in a reptile enclosure. In sanitizing the wild collected pieces, you are preventing bacteria and parasites from being introduced into your enclosures. The method used for sanitation will depend on the size and shape of the wood you need to cleanse.

The first step in sanitizing any size branch is to remove any leaves that may be present. Additionally, you should remove any smaller branches that you do not require, as well as any loose bark.

Smaller branches that can be placed in an oven, and watched, can be cleansed in a few hours. Larger branches that require soaking will take a few days to prepare for use.

Baking a branch or piece of wood at 200-250° F for 2-3 hours will destroy any internal parasites that the wood may be harboring. Increasing the temperature will NOT increase the speed in which the process is complete. It will however increase the likelihood that the wood catches fire. For safeties sake, please follow the directions as they are outlined.

If you are baking the wood, you must not leave it unattended. While the baking temperatures you are using are not typically capable of starting a fire, hot spots on the wood could cause combustion. The actual ignition point for wood exceeds 500° F. Regardless, be responsible and watch the wood.

The second method, which is often used for pieces of wood that are too large to fit in the oven, is to soak them. Soaking the wood takes more than a couple hours of your time, and requires that you have something large enough to contain the wood item while it soaks. Bath tubs and portable totes are ideal for soaking. Items that are even to large for those can be soaked in a childs baby or wading pool.

To properly soak wood, you should use a bleach solution. A ratio of 1/2 cup of bleach to one gallon of water will be sufficient. If you use a more concentrated solution, you will find it difficult to extinguish and leach the bleach out of the wood.

Using the ratio above, soak the wood for 24 hours in the solution. The bleach will seep into the wood and kill any parasites harboring inside. Once 24 hours has elapsed, remove the wood and rinse it thoroughly. You will now need to soak the wood again. This time soak the wood in clean water, that doesn't have any bleach. This process will need to be repeated several times over a 1-2 day period. The idea is to leach the bleach out of the wood. Every few hours you should remove the water in which the branch is soaking and replace it with fresh, clean water. This process will force the bleach into the clean water, diluting it with each replacement. As you continue to replace the water, the amount of bleach that will remain will dissipate until it has been leached completely.

Now you should allow the branch to air dry for several days, preferably outdoors. Hanging the branch from another item will help prevent any re-infestation from occurring.

Taking wood from nature is a great way to save money. It isn't always the best idea however. If you do not invest the time in sanitizing it, that money saved could end up being used to treat your reptile for parasites you introduced to the enclosure. 

Anything worth doing is worth doing right the first time. Save yourself a headache and sanitize the wood properly.


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## ChloEllie (Jul 18, 2009)

i read somewhere, for an hour at 200 degrees c


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## Tehanu (Nov 12, 2006)

You can bet money on the fact that "special" reptile woods sold in shops (Mopani, bogwood, liana vines etc) definitely don't get sterilised in any way shape or form...

The fact that "ferns and mushrooms" pop out of them even months after you did all of your treatments, suggests that they were never as sterilised as you thought they were.

Scrub with clean water, no chemicals, done.


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## knighty (Feb 27, 2008)

i have never used anything other than HOT HOT water and a clean scrubbing brush. bleach will soak into wood so thats not good, and baking it will just make it burn. only other thing i do is F10 on a cloth and give the branches a quick wipe when im cleaning the viv.


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## cpiggott22 (Apr 1, 2009)

thanks everyone : victory:. I've given a good scrub with super hot water and it got baked for an hour so I'm happy.


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## chrism (Jul 5, 2007)

Saedcantas said:


> The fact that "ferns and mushrooms" pop out of them even months after you did all of your treatments, suggests that they were never as sterilised as you thought they were.
> 
> Scrub with clean water, no chemicals, done.


I like the schroom etc in dart tanks! Adds to natural feel. Pretty much every darter will have had random plants grow in their tanks- hell, thats why people buy tree fern panels!


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## Tehanu (Nov 12, 2006)

chrism said:


> I like the schroom etc in dart tanks! Adds to natural feel. Pretty much every darter will have had random plants grow in their tanks- hell, thats why people buy tree fern panels!


Exactly!

My point was that no matter what you do to "sterilise" your incoming furnature, you haven't penetrated the piece of wood fully, springtails, millipedes, longhorn beetles, moss, ferns, moulds, mushrooms and other fungi will all appear once the wood is placed in a humid amphibian viv, because they were never killed in the first place! 

Hence, why I wouldn't bother, nor risk chemical residues and just give things a quick wash before they go straight in 

Not sure why you thought I was down on the mushrooms!


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