Substrates - When to Boil, When to Bake?

[jlfrogfan]

Hi everyone, I am helping a friend set up a tropical forest enclosure. For the substrate, he wants to use a mixture of cypress mulch and Zilla Jungle Mix. He's quite worried about mites and such, so I had him put the mulch and Jungle Mix in the freezer for now. His parents are adamant that the oven not be used for baking substrates, so we're wondering whether it would be okay to boil everything after freezing. My only concern is that boiling the Jungle Mix would be way messier than boiling the cypress.

Personally, I have never had this problem as I just freeze Eco Earth blocks, thaw them out later, and then re-hydrate them with boiling water. I'm not so sure about substrate that's already loose, like Jungle Mix or cypress. Does anybody have oven-less advice for treating loose substrates? Should just freezing be enough?

[deranged chipmunk]

Boiling would work. Freezing helps, but some critters have evolved to have their offspring survive even extreme colds, but nothing can handle boiling.


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