Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A question for those fellow Tegu keepers that use dirt for the hide material (Rollin I kinda remember you saying that you use dirt). Do you purchase clean dirt,say from a rockery/garden supply,or do you just use any old dirt??? I happen to have a large pile of dirt available, but there are quite a few rocks in it...plus,it turned out to have become the local ant colony. Don't want a mega ant farm in my tegu cage,and (obviously) can't use chemical pesticides to get rid of them!
Any comments/suggestions would be much appreciated.

i use cypress mulch in entire enclosure----i spray down mulch that is under hide (moist not wet)--in my experience it is easier to maintain proper humidity levels than with soil--also spot cleaning is easier-------hope this helps---also if you do decide to use dirt make sure to put in oven/stove to kill anything that exists in it--brian

I use cypress mulch, it is very easy to control the humidity with. I have also used the crushed coconut husk, conconut humice I think it is called, but don't like that as much as the cypress mulch. Also, you stated that there is nothing you can treat the dirt with. You are wrong. You can use a product called Black Knight. It is an insect spray, but is safe to use with reptiles and in reptile enclosures. Usually it is used to rid reptiles of mites, but it works for fungus gnats and pesty insects or "harmful" insects. I have used it to treat a buggy pack of cypress mulch that I got. Had gnat larvae in it. Works rather well. I think the only thing you have to be careful using it with is geckos and amphibians because of their skin. Oh, and colubrids are little more sensitive to it. Hope this helps.
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JS

"It's funny how from simple things, the best things begin."

Actually I've been using peat moss in the cage and coconut fiber in the hide box. Both of them hold amazing amounts of water but are hard to rewet if they get bone dry. I use the coconut fiber in the hide box because it's more resistant to mold.

peat moss i havent tried this yet. ill have to check that out. i use the coconut fiber too, works very well.

The peat moss is very similar to coconut fiber in texture. It is cheaper and holds a bit more water but isn't as resistant to mold.