Soil contains a tremendous variety of bacterium, fungi, nematodes and protozoa along with a host of other micro-organisms. While some are beneficial, such as Azobacter vinelandii, in “fixing” nitrogen to be utilized by plants, others can be down right dangerous, such as Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, some of which have developed into strains that have developed resistance to the antibiotics, including vancomyin and methicillin, commonly used to combat them.
Personally, I would use substrate prepared for use within the vivarium only, as such is readily available and poses a lower risk to the flora and fauna within your vivarium, rather than use soil excavated from an unreliable source…

Best regards,

Jeff
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Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947

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• microorganisms and sterilization - stage9, Mon Oct 31 20:37:11 2005
• RE: microorganisms and sterilization - epidemic, Tue Nov 1 11:13:23 2005
• RE: microorganisms and sterilization - erico, Tue Nov 1 22:46:14 2005