# Mold in the substrate and on the driftwood



## Quartzyellowjacket (Apr 1, 2012)

Now i'm new to the forum, and i'm not a protist or a fungi expert either but it was bad when my eco earth substrate was real damp the lights were off for about a week, then once I checked on the habitat again there were patches of white mold everywhere. So what I did was turned on both heat lamps and dried it out non stop for three days, and agitated the substrate to break up the mold. Now I try to keep the lights on, but with the two driftwood hides always grew mold no matter what I did to them, boiled them, baked them in an oven at 250 for an amount of time. White mold would always grow, so I got rid of them and put in a plastic hide along with rearranging the lights to make almost every part of the area not as dark. But i'll try to ventilate it more, its a good thing I don't get my Tegu till Tuesday. Do you think I should use springtails? Anyway i'm really exited for the Tegu, being the first time getting one but I have been studying very tediously. I've even made my ground turkey food already.


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## saided (Apr 2, 2012)

you should post a picture if possible. Is it white fuzzy mold? like food mold, or a stringy like stuff that grows under the substrate and sticks to the bark? cause fuzzy stuff is most likely a bad mold, and you probably should just replace substrate, and scrub the wood and enclosure with soapy water(spores will be EVERYWHERE, thats why it keeps coming back). If its white, kind-of stringy root looking stuff thats probably just a mushroom-like fungus that comes in with the bark. I've had it in my cage before, it didnt worry me cause it wasn't producing spores and my tegu wasnt eating it. What happens below the substrate in my cage I just let happen, its like a mini-ecosystem. I even found an earthworm once, NO idea where it came from... 

Sounds like your doing everything right so far though. And yes springtails love fungus! I have never added any but have tons living in the bark, I assume they came in with it. 
Congrats on almost getting a baby! Theyre the coolest


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## Quartzyellowjacket (Apr 2, 2012)

All the visible mold has gone, and i've dried the coco from damp to moist and I also try not to leave it for long periods of time without light Replacing substrate sounds like a good idea but money is an issue so i'll have to wait until next weekend to swing by my local dog and cat supplies store (They also happened to sell calcium powder without D3, which was a delight) to get some bark. But anyways, the mold was white and fuzzy, and I remember it being called "Stem rot" but I may be wrong. At the moment I have to get my springtail culture producing more babies in order to lace my substrate with them.


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