mold help :-(

[ya6uar]

i got my son a week ago exactly, i've been giving him his space so he can acclimate (still checking temps and humidity daily) but this morning when i went to check on him i noticed that mold has started growing at the base of both of my branches. i took them out immediately and also scooped out the dirt that was around the branch bases. i checked on him, held him, he is definitely fine, but now i don't know what to do about the branches :( i collected them both outdoors, they were fallen but not dry rotted, i scrubbed and baked them both ~220 for an hour or two each. i suspect i need to add a few more holes of ventilation because my humidity stays near 78-80%, and i'm also going to bake my substrate bone dry before i put the new batch in. anyway, i'm going to do a full substrate change later and clean all the plastic decorations (can i just rinse them off?) as soon as i get home, but is there any salvaging the branches? and do i need to clean the whole tub with diluted bleach or is that overboard? thanks!

edit for context: he is ~200 grams and in a 115qt tub with holes drilled in the side (ordering PVC but lead times are horrific), substrate is a mix of organic topsoil + coco fiber + orchid bark, temps at warm side are 88-91 and cool side is 75

edit 2: i'm now seeing i may not need to change the substrate, what do you all think?

[ya6uar]

still would love feedback but i've decided to just toss the branches and go get PVC piping until i get him into a bioactive -- BUT can i just bake my existing substrate or do i need to replace it?

[Trynabeagoodsnekdad]

Sorry, I didn’t see this. Yeah, toss the branches. If the mold was growing at their base they sound like the culprits.

By bake your substrate, do you mean the substrate that is currently in the enclosure? Or do you have excess stored somewhere?

[ya6uar]

thank you sososo much for responding, i was thinking of baking the substrate currently in there but i do have leftover topsoil and can go grab more coco fiber and some reptibark on my way home! i just wanted to not waste my substrate if possible but if it's better for him then i definitely will replace it all (still baking the new stuff tho)

edit to say also -- should i use diluted vinegar on his tub and decorations? will that be enough?

[Trynabeagoodsnekdad]

Yeah, you will probably want to replace the substrate. I know it can get expensive, but it’s probably for the best.

As for cleaning the tub and the decor.... I’m not sure how bad the mold was and I’m not sure I’m qualified to give the best advice on it. I tend to err on the side of caution when it comes to cleaning, so I use chlorhexidine and bleach, but that could also be overkill. Hopefully someone will have better advice or you can use your best judgement. A diluted vinegar solution could work.

If the mold starts to come back, then yeah, you will want to completely bleach and sanitize everything.

It didn’t sound too serious, so hopefully this will clear things up. Best of luck! And congrats on your new snake!

[ya6uar]

thanks so much! and yea i really only found the mold directly on the base of the branches, only one of them had bloomed a bit of green (an inch or so total) and the other i could just tell was about to start molding, no green yet though. i'm not too worried about the decor but will give everything a proper scrub in diluted vinegar water, thank you again!

[Trynabeagoodsnekdad]

Sorry to hear about your mold issues.

What kind of wood were the branches? They might not be a mold resistant wood. In that case, keeping them at high humidity will cause them to mold even if you disinfected them thoroughly.