Question Regarding Sanitation of Substrate

[A976486]

To what extent should I sanitize substrate of a deceased tarantula's enclosure to reuse for a living tarantula's enclosure?

 

[Aracnoenthusiast]

Personally, for the low cost of substrate, just change it out

 

[A976486]

Personally, for the low cost of substrate, just change it out

Would the scent of a deceased tarantula be too difficult to remove from the substrate?

 

[CritterKeeper79]

Would the scent of a deceased tarantula be too difficult to remove from the substrate?

I don’t believe it’s an issue of scent. I believe it’s an issue of ethics. Why would you want to reuse the substrate? Why would a new Tarantula which I’m assuming you’ve paid good money for, not be deserving of fresh substrate? I’d at least remove and replace the top inch. Just my opinion and what I’d do, doesn’t mean you have to. It’s just probably the more ethical thing to do. That or all new substrate.

 

[A976486]

I guess I could just offer the old substrate as potting soil to someone else to make sure it doesn't go to waste.

 

[CritterKeeper79]

I guess I could just offer the old substrate as potting soil to someone else to make sure it doesn't go to waste.

I don’t know if much is known about what a tarantula can smell. I know they say they can sense pheromones. So I’m not sure they could smell a dead tarantula. I know my P. irminia has incorporated a piece of super worm into it’s web that I can’t get to, it doesn’t seem bothered by it’s rotting. It did cover it in webbing though. I’d say plant food is a good use of the substrate or corpse of a tarantula.