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Baking a good substitue for bleach?

T

tommy2close

New member
I've had my 6 month old Butter Motley for about a month now and the time has come for a full terrarium cleaning, but just thinking of using bleach on anything that will come into contact with my baby makes my stomach turn. I know that thorough rinses negate the risk, but I guess I'm just paranoid that I'll miss some crack or crevice somewhere and just don't want to take the risk. I've researched the other reptile-safe disinfectants out there but I can't seem to find any reliable retailer who sells them here in So Cal. My question is this: I know I'll have to use a liquid disinfectant of some kind for the glass terrarium itself, but can I just bake the hides/water bowl/fake plants etc. in the oven to avoid the dangers of bleach? Is this method just as effective as bleach? Also, what would be anyone's opinion of using vinegar/water to disinfect the terrarium? Any advice would be greatly, greatly appreciated!
 
Use boiling water. That's what I do with dishes, plastic furniture and artificial plants. Then rinse in cold. I would be worried about some things melting in the oven and causing a real mess.

Another thing, if you use bleach, use a very mild mixture and do a rinse, then allow to air dry. I have been doing this for a couple of years and I haven't had any problems.

Wayne
 
If baking were a good substitute for bleach, I'd be putting soiled laundry into the oven. :sidestep:


Dale
 
Wayne is right about the baking and uing 1 part bleach to 10 parts water is very mild. Rinse super well, dry, and stick in the sun for awhile if your really paranoid and left overs will evaporate:)
 
Thanks all for the quick replies. Guess it probably wasn't the best idea...just really wanted to avoid bleach. With your reassurances I'll just make sure to rinse the heck out of everything and use the boiling water idea for his water dish (thanks Wayne!)
 
I am not sure why you are so freaked out about bleach. You can use it to sterilize drinking water!!

Baking is nice for wooden items. I wash water bowls at every feeding with hot soapy water. If I am disinfecting, I make a sink full of 10% bleach solution, dunk all the hides and vines in, swish around, then run another sink full of plain hot water and rinse. I take the 10% bleash solution and wipe down the viv, and then wipe it again with plain hot water. If you want to be _really_ thorough, after the bleach and the rinse, wipe it with 25% ammonia, and rinse. Never mix bleach and ammonia!!
 
Baking will kill the bacteria and stuff for the most part, but if you're looking to get rid of the stuff, bleach will take it away. Since bleach actually chemically moves the dirt away, it will clean it more effectively than just baking will.
 
We use the oven for wood, rock and sometimes substrate just to make sure no creepy crawlies are left in them. And we have been using bleach on all our vivs for the last 5 years without any problems. Like everyone else has said, rinse well and air dry.
 
Your getting some great advice so far and it's all worth noting....
If you want the best disinfectant in the world to clean out vivs, well anything really, thats safe look into getting
F10
Thats a link BTW
 
With aquarium fish (i know fish and snakes are different, but the dissinfecting requirements are similar) bleach mixed 1:10 is the best thing, as mensioned above if you rinse and let things air dry. I always felt safest with bleach infact, because it will evaporate if you leave it out. Pure bleach would too strong to use for most things...not just disinfecting.
 
RosieReal said:
Pure bleach would too strong to use for most things...not just disinfecting.
Click to expand...

:-offtopicWhen I was a kid I wanted to make myself a pair of tye-dyed jeans. that's right, I used to be cool. :cool: So I put some bleach in a bucket and added the jeans. I came back a few hours later and used a stick to take the jeans out of the bucket. The stick came out suprisingly easy, suprisingly empty. The bleach had completely desintergrated the jeans, live and learn...
 
dwyn127 said:
... used a stick to take the jeans out of the bucket. The stick came out suprisingly easy, suprisingly empty. The bleach had completely desintergrated the jeans, live and learn...
Click to expand...

I bet those jeans made you REALLY popular!:grin01:
Terri
 
use milton :) its bleach but its the bleach used on babys toys (that the baby wud have in there mouth) i use it and it works well :) why not jus replace the substrate ???
 
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