Reptile & Amphibian Forums

well im putting together my cage and was wondering how i would makesure the topsoil is clean. Should i bake it at a high tempature? microwave it? lol any idea i just wanna make sure i have a clean habitat.
thx

or do you think store bought top soil is already clean enough?

I use river/creek bank dirt and a very small percentage of sand sometimes. I strain it in a screen (alot of work), next it will be a truckload or 2 for the new cage already strained. You dont need to worry about bacteria, parasites, etc, and there may be a small handful of other bugs to squish over a few days time. Store bought dirt, lets see, dont ever use organic top soil, its recycled tree bark, its black and stinks, its organic material therefore gets moldy, it also has little flying white insects all through it. Call a landscaping place and get strained field dirt, add sand, etc to it. You may bake it all you want, thats your choice, I think its just paranoia to do so and a big time consumer to bake enough dirt for a monitor cage.
Good luck, what species of monitor, look into their soil type needs.