So what they are saying is you need a thermostat, or your snake may burn itself. The UTH can reach temps of 120F unregulated. I used to do that (with a thermostat) put reptile carpet down, then put aspen on top. The snakes would always be under the carpet in this intricate set of tunnels. They liked it, but were hard to catch under there. It was a huge relief to stop doing it.
A good beginner thermostat is the ZooMed 500R, bought on line for half as much as in the store, or the basic Big Apple herp model, bought on line.