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Wild wood in the vivarium?

I would like to make use of some of the fantastic lichen and moss covered fallen wood laying about in the forest surrounding my condo as orchid mounting branches in my new vivarium. Since I wish to keep the living stuff on the wood alive I was wondering what would be a good precautionary measure to kill any critters or bad stuff on it on it without baking it. The outside temps 30-40*F should be enough to have killed most insects for this year. I thought about spraying it with pyrethium spray but if I am to be successful with the hatching of the Phylllium giganteum (armored leaf insects) what will they think of crawling on wood which had at one time been sprayed with that and then rinsed several times even if it was months before they were born and had plenty of water misted on it since?
 
Other than mites ... works on 'normal' critters ... CO2
 
Don't use the pyrethrin. It will soak into the wood, no matter the precautions. Use the Co2.




FWIW, if the Phyllium ever make more eggs, please let me know. I have Phyllium sp, and love them!
 
Hmm yes, I recall reading about this years ago on a frog board. I'd forgotten about dry ice. My main problem is where can you get dry ice? What do you tell the place you're buying it from you want it for? How much do you buy? Can it be stored in the regular freezer? The only time I've ever seen the stuff in person was when I was a kid in grade school and we toured behind the scenes of the meat dept of the grocery store.

Someone on that linked post mentioned the old DIY sugar + yeast Co2 solution. can I just mix up my old aquatic plant Co2 mix and just seal the wood in a clear plastic bag with the Co2 generating solution and gas the branches a few times? That would be far easier for me to swing than getting hold of some dry ice.

---------- Post added at 01:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:15 AM ----------

Stinkpot,
You're the one who put the idea of these insects in my head. I never knew they were available before. I'd love to trade eggs (or live bugs) if mine do well. Supposedly I chose a bad/hard species to start with but since mine originated outside the US (oops :blush:) then maybe my clones will be different than the "common" P. giganteum. I wonder if various species can co-exist in the same vivarium?

I just potted up six red raspberry food bushes for them tonight. I hope the plants will grow potted as I have no outside land to plant them on living in a condo. Maybe I can "guerrilla grow" some raspberries by transplanting a couple of the bushes out in the woods next spring when nobody's looking.
 
I buy my dry ice at the grocery store. Who cares what I want it for, what's it to them? They never ask, anyways. But if they do, tell the truth, lol! Or say it's for a kid's party;) They use it for decor and home-made root beer all the time.

I think the bugs would get along well. I dunno.

Mine are still hatching, at their own rate. Four hatched now, and three finally figured out what their mouths are for. The last one didn't. :glare:


The raspberries will do well, provided they get TONS of light. I wanna hear this, too, LOL! I have never heard of raspberries being grown indoors.
 
TONS of light? Hmm that might be problem in my place until spring when i can put the pots outside. I was just gonna let the bare canes live next to the dormant succulents living by light shed from the Anoles vivarium. There are new buds developing on the Raspberry canes since I received them so I guess they don't have to go dormant if the conditions are good for growth?

I'll play around and see what happens in various parts of the house/windows. My dad has a southern exposure window in his apt where he has a plant shelf now too, so maybe I'll give him a new plant for his shelf at Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow and see how it does there as well. :D

I think the bugs would get along well. I dunno.
Ever grow Mantids? I hatched them inside but let them out into the garden soon after wards. They don't get along so well what with the cannibalism and so on. lol
An Asian guy I worked with saw me reading my mantis book and told me they called Mantids "Dau Dau" in Vietnam and people would gather to watch them and place bets on which mantis would survive the battle and be eaten by the other bug. Talk about "loosing big"! lol
 
CO2 bath? Might want to try to ID the lichens to see if they're react poorly to oxygen deprivation. I'd watch out for bug eggs and dormant critters - definitely hose it down with rubbing alcohol. Maybe do a couple different lengths of applications and see how well the sessile stuff holds up to it.
- Ooh, ninja'd. I guess I should've clicked submit before closing the laptop lid.
I'm not sure, but I think the CO2 emitted by a yeast colony might not be enough to really saturate a container. Dry ice would do a better job, but I get the impression that tanks of liquid CO2 are the most cost-efficient choice. Dry ice is easy to find, though - just about every ice cream shop I've ever asked has had some on hand. I think you could store it in your freezer, but it would slowly evaporate it.
~Joe
 
I'm not sure, but I think the CO2 emitted by a yeast colony might not be enough to really saturate a container.
I tried this & nothing died...

Dry ice would do a better job, but I get the impression that tanks of liquid CO2 are the most cost-efficient choice. Dry ice is easy to find, though - just about every ice cream shop I've ever asked has had some on hand. I think you could store it in your freezer, but it would slowly evaporate it. ~Joe
Look around. There are more places than you'd imagine. Some grocery chains carry it, some odd stores, & a lot of ice cream places. The freezer will slow down the process but only some. I get 5 lbs for 4 - 10 gal tanks & probably use <2 lbs for the 'fogging'. I use the remainder to fog in the am as a fertilizer (for 2 days or so).
 
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