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Are oak and maple woods safe to place in a corn snake cage?

wendhend

wendhend

Kind of Corny
One of my customers has inquired whether it is safe for her to place oak and / or maple climbing sticks inside her corn snake cage. I know that cedar and pine would probably not be the best choices, but I have never heard anything about maple or oak being problematic. I would assume they would be okay, especially since they are only being used for climbing sticks and not as a substrate that the snake would be on all the time. Anybody ever heard of these woods being problematic for snakes?
 
I would say as long as it's dry out with no sap and free from bugs and such it would be no problem.
Wood can be cleaned (bleach and water) and/or bake, low temp.
 
My knee-jerk reaction is to say no, just because it's wood. But, if she cleans it thoroughly and only has maybe one or two in there it should be okay. There are climbing sticks she could buy from a pet store, though.
 
Besides purchased drift wood, I have at least a few pieces of collected wood in most of our vivs. After brushing off loose material I bake them in the oven for 45 minutes or so (larger the piece the longer I bake it for) at 330 deg F. Kills any bugs/fungus and drys out the sap. I have never read anything that would related oak or maple to being toxic or have witnessed anything in our viv.
 
Maple and oak are perfectly safe yes. My rules of thumb are:

- Hardwoods and fruit woods, fine
- Soft woods and evergreens, dangerous

Just bake/bleach as stated above to get rid of any creepy crawlies. Strip the bark off and sand it down if you're really concerned, as that's usually where the nasties will be hiding. Not necessary in most cases though.

Plenty of people use wood with Corns. There's no need for a blanket ban, just a knowledge of what's good and what's bad.
 
I appreciate all of your reassurance on this. Baking and disinfecting the wood sticks definitely sounds like a good precaution. Thanks again!
 
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