Solution to kill bugs & ants: Tiles on top of diatomaceous earth and coco coir

Via Infinito

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Joined
Dec 18, 2017
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115
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Viet Nam
I believe I have found a working solution on the bugs solution as well as the accidental ingestion problem.

This was my enclosure before in the first pic, coco coir is a mess when it gets wet, and all those annoying bugs and ants kept accumulate in there!

After a month I have found a very happy arrangement that I think is perfect for small size tortoises and I want to share my modifications with you guys! (In the second picture you can see the tiles in the background)

I have two separate micro climates in my enclosure
The first half: the coco coir is kept very dry, with diatomaceous earth food grade as top layer, then tiles on top with the rough side up. Eat, bask, poop are all in this section. The lamp is kind of in the middle so both the dry side and the wet side have even heat.
Advantages of this dry side:
- No accidental ingestion of substrate
- No scraps for bugs to eat and grow
-He poops on the tiles, which is very easy to clean by removing the tile he pooped on
- Minimize dirt that can tainted his skin
- The dry coco coir and diatomaceous earth really kept the bugs away, they never can seem to explode in population like before. ( this side has to remain dry in order for the earth to work). A very natural way to kill bugs
- The tile prevents the tortoise from inhaling or come into contact with the earth
-Tile prevents tortoise from coming into contact with the bugs as well, as they like to stay underneath the tiles.
-Rough surface wears down his claws.

The second half: coco coir is kept very wet, with a plant, and the water bowl. Abit of the basking light shines on the water bowl, increasing humidity and warms the water. Humid hide is in the corner
Advantage of this wet side:
- He sleeps in the humid hide, and digged in the spahgnum moss and coco coir. That is about 12 hours of his shell being conditioned to high humidity.
- Warm water
- Since lamp is in the middle, the wet side is not cold
- Plant takes light from lights, plant increases humidity
- Even though it is wet, food is never provided here, bugs find it harder to grow as there are no food in this section. I actually have never seen any bugs in this side, they tend to gather where the heat lamp is.


With this set up:
-No bugs
-No accidental ingestion
-Easy to clean
-Two drastic microclimates
- Warm water
- Easy to feed
-Provide shades and burrows
- Convenient when you only have to dampen half of the substrate
- Substrate lasts very long, due to the fact that the dry side has no mold (food is dried up), the wet side has no mold (no food provided)

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