well, my largest mantella, i call her mantella 6, has started gnawing on the wood like a beaver. but that's probably because i have been dusting her fruit flies with steroids i got from barrybonds.com. anabolics, tbeir just not for people anymore. but what's most impressive is her sword swallowing act.

i do see the point inconfinement. chemicals could leech which would most likely become run off and diluted in a forest.

now, how am i supposed to know how old the tree was? i didn't have time to count the rings while the park rangers were chasing me down. apparently, it's not good to hack down trees in protected forests. who knew?

seriously though, i only collect wood that is positively dead and has been for quite a long time. since i live next to large river, i avoid collecting driftwood from the shoreline since there is no way of knowing if it just fell during recent storms or has been pushed down river after sitting upriver cor years.