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If there is 1 thing women hate about animals its the smell. For the most part I have it "under control" but as the heat of summer is coming I want to do something more. I was at Daytona a few years ago and a guy travelled with one of those ionizer things....do they really work? Where do you get them? Right now I have a open window and a fan going 24/7 any more ideas??

Maybe you could clean the cages? LMAO - no seriously Jeff, What is causing the smell?
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I was at Daytona a few years ago and a guy travelled with one of those ionizer things....do they really work?

They are expensive ($800-41000). BUT yes they WORK! They work real well.

It depends on teh brand of course. As not all ionizers are equal.

I shared a room one year with Tom Stevens and he had one running in the room before i arrived. We both had several hundred snakes each and we left pinkies and fuzzies in the cups before travel in all of them. Well we started takingaout all the smelly deomposing bloated pinkies to discard them from the deli cups and I swera you could not smell a thing in that room. Normally the whole place would be stunk up and probably leaking the smell under the door into the hallways.

I then held a large bloated fuzzy up to my nose in front of the ionizer and could not smell a thing from one inch away. The ionizer worked that good. It really is amazing!

I would think it works wonders for people that have a large mouse breeding colony.
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www.Bluerosy.com

Rainer, my nose simply doesnt work as well as the girls', know what I mean? I can clean every day and have the fan on, so I want to get one of these. Which ones are good/bad? Any ideas of cubic foot coverage? My room is 8x12. Thanks, J

A Tom Stevens used to be a rep for the brand i saw. But he does not sell them anymore. Contact him and ask him what the brand was. It is the same brand i see being sold at reptile shows. They had a table for these machines at Daytona in 2008.

I gurantee you won't be disspointed. Cleans the air up so good and is great for people and children with allergies. But to see how well it really works is put it in a small room with hundreds of decomposing mice and WOW! It works!
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www.Bluerosy.com

Rainer, I think I'd have better use of it with 1 big dead body than hundreds(??) of mice. Geesh,lol.

It irritated the crap out of me that people will spend thousands of dollars on reptiles and things needed to keep them properly yet when it came to these machines everyone scoffed at the price.

They would approach me as if they were buying an animal, and want to haggle on the price. I priced things as fairly as I could and still remain firm on ANYTHING with a pricetag, which is why been laying low for the better part of a year. People in this hobby want everything for peanuts... and I have no time for bargain hunters. I have 3 of these machines in my home, and I could not get by without them. It cost me well over 2 thousand dollars for them, and it is money well spent.

Tom Stevens
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TomsSnakes.com
twitter.com/TomsSnakes

Tom, I'm of the opinion that if you spend $$ on cages and periphery that you spend more time with the animals, and the extra effort is rewarded in health. As far as cheap bastards, thats the main reason I deal in MORPHS! Unfortunately normal looking snakes dont sell as easily or for as much $$. People who cant afford the real high end stuff(over $100/baby)are the hagglars and I HATE HAGGLING!! Why does anyone haggle? Because there are alot of soft guys out there. Its never the cost, if you wanted $5 for a snake they would offer you $3 on principal....I do whatever I can to stay away from those guys! Unfortunately some of those guys now have money so they do it for even the higher priced animals....its a buyers market.
Back on topic, SELL ME!! What is the difference in your product to say the standard Ionic Breeze from Sharer Image??

Sadly, high end products don't prevent cheap bastards from being an issue. My in laws are a case in point; Father-in-law is an environmental engineer for Conoco-Phillips so he's not hurting but he will try to haggle over the stupidest things...I refuse to go shopping/theaters/meals with them anymore.

>> Back on topic, SELL ME!! What is the difference in your product to say the standard Ionic Breeze from Sharer Image??
Amen. is there a place I can like test these out and see 'em in action? The ones from Sharper image didn't impress me much and Consumer reports ragged on 'em too.
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

Seriously! I keep my cages clean. Sure I'll miss something sometimes; a snake drops a deuce in a tunnel, or a mouse gets buried (gross!). Or an animal regurges. But those are not normal...but there's still a snakey smell. I don't know if it's just BO or what. It doesn't phase me much but it is certainly noticeable.
A ceiling fan and open window work wonders in the summer though.
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

>>>Right now I have a open window and a fan going 24/7 any more ideas??

remove ALL waste daily... viola no smell.

,,,,,,,thomas
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Morphs... just like baseball cards BUT ALIVE, how cool is that???

my website www.barmollysplace.com

Burn scented candles! LOL! Ladies like candles!

I have 20 snakes in my living room - if it stinks when I walk in the door, I hunt up the problem. Sometimes all I do is dump a wad of clean bedding on top of the stink. Works for me!

And, I do burn a candle if I have to.
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Amy Claiborne

Don't let them take your wasted time. J.T.

Sorry about the GUY thing, hope it didnt hurt your delicate feelings. My nose got burnt out under a bad hood in college, I really cant smell something until...lets just say its too late. I'm looking for something to cover for my lost sense and the ionizer is a good idea.

No way did you hurt my feelings, John. My post was partially tongue-in-cheek anyway. I understand your questions. It would be nice to have something to help with the odors.
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Amy Claiborne

Don't let them take your wasted time. J.T.

For myself, I do these simple things:

1. Clean as much as possible.
2. Use newspaper.

With this formula, I have no " snake room " smell. You walk in, and it smells just like any other room in the house.

Now, since I keep pits mostly, one healthy day of number 2's from the majority of them, let me tell you, I then question my sincerity with this hobby....HAHA!!

But yeah, avid cleaning and newspaper keeps my room virtually smell free.
I say that cause when I used aspen for years and years, it seemed to " amplify ", so to say, the smell of snake poop, etc.. I had the snake room smell others had. Then, when I switched to newspaper completely, I was amazed.

This is just my results.

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Genesis 1:1

This might be because newspaper doesn't give you any time to wait. I mean with shavings you can spot clean and it's a bit forgiving so we tend to let it go longer. With newspaper you pretty much have to clean or change the paper after every poop. Which is probably a good thing actually.
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King Snakes! Who can make a better mouse trap?
J Sierra

Interesting you should say that....

Like everybody else I've used everything from mulch to well, whatever..LOL. I am experimenting a bit with that Sani-Chips stuff that Lee Abott reccomends. Kind of clumps nice.

I've been spot cleaning with shredded Aspen for a long time and just in the last few days started going back to newspaper for Speckleds and Brooks and noticed an immeadiate overall change in odors! Very maintenance intensive and the snakes sometimes defecate after handling (somebody once posted maybe they are marking their cage? Handling for cage cleaning could also just move the bowels along? but if you stay on top of it, it's nice. I noticed a Brooks sniffling, I guess with the dust. So I changed it to paper and no sniffling!

Bob.

Also noticed some of my kings are getting fiesty lately. Maybe it's the time of year. They are eating me out of house and home since I've adopted the feed often stuff we've all been discussing here. I'm wondering if handling more to clean the paper in the cage will help mellow them as oppossed to spot cleaning and not disturbing them?

As far as handling more while cleaning cages helping to mellow some of the snakes, it is hard to say. I would think that any additional handling, whether it be for cleaning or just for the sake of handling, may be helpful in that area.
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Genesis 1:1

Jeff, I'm not sure about an ionizer but what is good for controlling smell is an ozone generator. Ozone breaks down the molecular bond which causes odor. IT CAN BE HARMFUL OR DEADLY if not used at the right concentration. I use it in my fish pond to kill algae and parasites. It has sort of a chlorine smell to it but they are extremely effective! I must say again, USE EXTREME CAUTION WITH DOSING! Good luck.

I just looked up ionizers and it is basically the same thing. 59 dollars for one that can handle one room. Steve

I just looked up ionizers and it is basically the same thing. 59 dollars for one that can handle one room. Steve

The ones i talked about are certainly not $59. They are in the $800-$1000 range. i doubt a $59. unit will do what i experinced.

hmmm, maybe ionizer is not the right term for what experinced first hand.
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www.Bluerosy.com

Google search IONIZER and see what you find. The price you are saying sounds like an ozone generator.

www. heavenfresh.com.

Jeff, my good buddy KJ of KJUN Snakehaven suggested one of the air purifying units available. He said he used them in his boa room when he had them housed inside his home and said they worked awesome. Not sure, but he didnt indicate they were terribly expensive. I think you can find them at Sharper Image stores, maybe even Radio Shack? You can email him and ask what brand/model he has, and the cost. Should be able to contact him through his website at KJUN Snakehaven.com.

With temps and humidity rising outside more each day here in Louisiana, I am also noticing more odor from the herp room in my house. I am wondering if switching from pine shavings I normally use to aspen shavings I used this last thorough cleaning is contributing to the odors. All my cages were completely emptied, cleaned, and refilled with fresh shavings. For some reason the aspen seems to get a more septic smell to it quicker when soiled or gets wet from water bowl spills IMO. In addition to ventilating the room better (I have the AC vent closed in the room to keep it warmer), I am going to switch back to the pine and see if that helps the odor situation more.

I use apsen too, and even after being in the snake room on day 1, setting up all the cages with fresh bedding and what-not, I came into the house and my wife still complained she could "small the snakeroom" on me. Friends come over and might poke a joke when they walk in "Ahhhhhh, the smell of reptile poo" when actually, there is none in the room and the trash is empty.

I'm going to use up my last stores of apsen and consider switching to something else, at least pine for a bit and see if I notice anything.

I have one of those cheapo $50 ionizers in the room, running constantly, and a ceiling fan, but zero ventilation in the room which doesnt help. I can't say for sure if the air cleaner does any good, it's a hard thing to test I guess.

I've been toying around with the idea of buying 2 bathroom ventilation fans and installing them in a push/pull method by simply reversing the polarity on one fan. I'd have the option to vent out to my garage, or out to the outdoors, but as soon as I do this I feel like I'm giving up some of the efficiency of my temperature control in the room.
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Tom

"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"

I really do believe aspen contributes to the "stank" of the room!! My buddy who also uses an ionizing unit also uses pine due to allergies to aspen. Go figure?? I believe I am going back to the kiln dried pine when the aspen is used up as well. In less than two weeks using the aspen my room had odor, even with no poop, etc. in the room. It appears even a bit of water spillage causes an odor with the aspen for some reason.

I have 21 snakes in my cabin living room, all on aspen. Also have a covered cat box with clumping unscented litter! So if it is going to stink, it would have done so by now, except I remove any waste daily. When the bigger snakes, such as my young bulls and my 600 gram Pacific gopher defecate, I will smell it right away and can remove it right then. When people come in to my cabin and see all the cages they wonder what is in them, but never mention any unpleasant odors. My partner would definitely mention odors if he detected them! LOL!

I also have an old RV in my yard for my mice; almost 40 assorted sized tubs. I use pine with them and keep the operation clean, changing the pine every 4 to 10 days depending on bio burden.

I think the key to controlling odors is removing the poops and pees right away, not let anything fester. Also keep the substrate dry. I have my water bowls in cake pans with sphagnum moss to contain the water when the snakes slop around, to prevent wet aspen.

Wait till you have a big snake take a dump; I've got a 30-40 lb boa and some medium retics...their poops weigh more than most adult kings and while they're not terribly potent...if one takes a crap while I'm at work, I know it as soon as I enter the house.
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

Now you know why I plan to only have bull snakes as my largest snakes! I have a rule on keeping carnivorous animals; I will not have an animal that poops a bigger poop than I poop!

Things that can kill/maim you are more fun though And that's probably nto a healthy attitude but hey. I still feel that way.
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

Nah, it's not that a big snake could kill me, its a really big poop could kill my nose! LOL! I was going to get a red tailed boa but then read somewhere that when they get big one might need a shovel to remove the feces!

I just use paper towels with Yoda, and he's good sized for a boa. The retics...I bought a small garden shovel for them...
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We wouldn't have 6 and a half billion people if you had to be beautiful to get laid.
6.6 African House snakes
3.2 reticulated pythons
.1 corn snake
4.2 Florida Kings
1.2 speckled kings
1.2 ball pythons
0.0.1 Argentine boa

Have you tried using Carefresh? It is more expensive than aspen, but is pretty amazing stuff. I have only just begun to experiment with it, so I can't give you solid results. However, my Bullsnakes have the some of the worst smelling poops so I recently changed their bedding to Carefresh, and I have yet to smell a thing in their bins. I can even stick my nose right in the bin and all I smell is a newspapery aroma.

I may switch the majority of my collection over if the Carefresh continues to douse the smell.

Good luck!
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Aubrey Ross

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