Substrate

Like Jamie said, soil is not required. As indicated in my first post in this thread - I have also used just the coco-fiber by itself over the past 15 years or so, with great success.
 
Ooo ok I'll just do that because it's the safest thing in my opinion and it's readily available... Willl worms be able to move freely in it
 
I had a terrarium in which it was all coir and I was pulling worms out like crazy a few months after adding like 3 or 4. You would be A-OK.

But, with the leaf litter idea you do get a natural looking floor for your terrarium in one shot. It can look nice and Im not sure if you have chigger problems in NJ like we do in DE. I never heard of the things till I moved here.
 
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What are chiggers?? Never heard of them before
 
An almost parasitic larval stage of a herbivorous mite thats nearly microscopic:eek:, related to Ticks also. They bite you, inject a enzyme that hardness your tissue for a feeding tube, and then they secrete enzymes that liquefy small minute portions of your tissue to feed on. They feed for four days before thee mature and then they feed on decaying plant matter and such. They are designed to feed on birds and reptiles and apparently they feed on us accidently. Scientists or what have you beleive that reptiles and birds dont even feel a thing, go figure.

They leave behind nasty itchy stinging welts that suck for weeks and drive you nuts! Typically you get bit by waaaaaay more than just one.

Apparently they are more common from Delaware down than you would think. In PA and NJ I had problems with ticks, well down this way its the darn Chiggers that are a mess.

Popping Benedryl becomes a life style.
 
That's crazy so freezing the leaves will kill them.
 
I'm a lazy cheapskate so I utilize a mix of coir and worm castings. On keeping with the lazy, the worm castings come from my worm farm which is fed with the used coir from my tanks...

I used to use Hyponex brand top soil, but its mix varies from state to state. Looking at your locality I would stick with coir and leaf litter.
 
I'm cheap too that's why I went with the plastic bin set up.
 
Roney said:
That's crazy so freezing the leaves will kill them.
Click to expand...

If frozen long enough yes.

The alternative is baking at a low temp but thats not recommended. You shuldnt have a problem with a fire or anything at just above 100 degrees but then everything gets very brittle.
 
Just to let every one know my two tiger salamanders made it safe their healthy and eating... Well ikno one of them ate for sure I put two worms at the entrance of their hide and when I came back they were gone and Kermit(the big tiger) was at the spot were they worms were.. Should I lift up there hideing spot to feed them?? And they havnt ventured out of it yet but they probably do wen I fall asleep.. Any suggestions on light set ups for night viewing.
 
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