I've never had a problem with parasites in my mulch. Sometimes they get the little wood lice, but they are harmless to the snakes and I only see them in abundance when it is time to change out all the substrate. I keep the mulch quite moist though, which might prevent their eggs from hatching or something.

I've also never had a problem with it being dusty. The stuff I get is usually already moist and very loamy and stringy. Virtually dust free. I use it as the bulk bedding for my rodents for this reason since the Aspen I could get had quite a bit of dust and seemed to be irritating everyone.
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Lincoln, NE
0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma (hidden gene?), 0.1 Yellowbelly
2.1 Normals, 1.0 Thayeri, 0.1 Thayeri X Alterna, 0.1 Whitesided P. catenifer sayi, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

[ Hide Replies ]

• Humidity - zippy00_99, Mon Jan 3 14:48:00 2011
• RE: Humidity - jlballs, Mon Jan 3 20:57:40 2011
• have you tried cypress bark yet? np - chongorojo, Tue Jan 4 08:37:24 2011
• RE: have you tried cypress bark yet? np - zippy00_99, Tue Jan 4 10:31:41 2011
• RE: have you tried cypress bark yet? np - Bolitochrome, Tue Jan 4 10:43:29 2011
• RE: have you tried cypress bark yet? np - zippy00_99, Tue Jan 4 11:00:38 2011
• RE: Humidity - zippy00_99, Tue Jan 4 10:39:17 2011
• RE: Humidity - Bolitochrome, Tue Jan 4 08:45:39 2011
• RE: Humidity - zippy00_99, Tue Jan 4 10:37:43 2011
• RE: Humidity - raspoptsis, Tue Jan 4 15:49:42 2011