need serious help!

[Ben]

hey all, ive been following this forum every night, even posted some. for you who remember im the guy with the juvinile snow corn.(i know, more than 1 guy w/ a snow corn, just bare w/ me). any ways, my problem is heat. i have my corn in the garage and up until now, the temps been fine. but now the temps are rising in the high 80's and even low 90's. And before u say it, there is no way i can bring it inside the house. i have already argued and faught w/ my parents and the answer remains no. So, finally my question is: is there any way i can bring down the heat, i really cant afford a window unit right now, but any other suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. thanx in advance.... -Ben-

[jim]

ben,
being in texas i expect that your garage is going to get much much hotter than this in the coming months (i lived in el paso for 4 years) and your heat problems will worsen. i think you need to find some way to increase the ventilation in your garage. open windows if you can and set up a couple fans. you can place a fan near the cages and place a tub of water in front of it. the evaporation of the water will cool the air that is hopefully blowing across the cage. (same principle on why an evaporative cooler works) if you are in an arid part of texas (west) this should decrease the temp of the cage substantially. good luck, jim

[Ben]

Hey Jim, thanx for the reply. i never really thought of water evaportation, however it does make alot of since. I'll probably do just that. thanx agian... - Ben-

[Darin Chappell]

It has been my experience that the concrete floor of a garage is considerably cooler than the air above it (the earth tends to stay at a constant 68 degrees just a few feet below the surface, and this is seen in shaded areas like a garage). Therefore, I would use the evaporation method mentioned above, but I would also make sure that the bottom of the tank (glass I presume) is directly on the floor of your garage. It will still feel much hotter to you in there, but corns absorb most of their heat off their ventral scales, and I suspect that your corn will feel much cooler than the 80 - 90 degrees you have in the air three feet off the ground.

All of this being said, you may very well have a problem if the temperatures rise very much above 100-110 degrees out there. I'd try to find a contengency plan if I were you.

Hope this helps -- Darin

[Susan]

I have a similar problem here in Florida. My snakes are also kept in my garage and the day-time temps have already gotten to 90 F in there. My garage is insulated, which helps, and since my air-conditioned laundry room exits into the garage, I will often leave the door open, at least a little, to get some cooler air in there. My husband hates it when I do it, complaining about the electric bill, but then I just throw the phone bill in his face stating that I"M not the one who calls a friend in New York and talks about nothing for 2 hours!

[Missymonkey]

on hotter days you could always give them a cool bath, it's only temporary help but it's better than nothing....just be sure the water isn't too cold, you don't want to shock their systems or anything like that