Is Your Substrate Causing Your Mold Problems? 

Can I just say that it seem like the more videos you make, the more your personality "shines through" (I know it sounds stupid), but I'm really enjoying that. It makes your videos a lot more "entertaining" to watch, and it's nice to see that you are getting more and more comfortable filming these! :)

I laughed so hard with the whole coir thing, hilarious. Greetings from Belgium!

I've been using a mixture of reptisoil, sphagnum moss, reptibark, charcoal, and excavator clay. Holds tunnels very well and stays nice and soft. Also breeding my own spring tails allows me to keep adding them in when they seem to get low if the soil gets too dry or something.

Literally perfect timing, just about to replace the substrate in some enclosures due to mold. Thank you :)

I can see the work you put into this video and I appreciate it

CORONA VIRAS! ... that got me freaking rolling

You’re like a breathe of fresh air! Can’t wait to catch up, for some reason you had been removed from my recommended list 🤦🏾‍♀️💕

Yes! Love your shirt man!

Great info Alex..much needed. Tyfs God bless you

Brilliant vid so informative

I never really had mold problems, the only time I had it is when the substrate was just really old and when I used a non-drift/cork wood stick. This is really useful.

Great information as always.

I started experimenting with mixing substrate very early on when I started keeping, mainly because of Tom funny enough. It's nice having premixed substrate but I just mix it depending on the species and their husbandry. It's easy enough since you have to do work anyway, whenever making a new enclosure. Coco fiber, sphagnum moss and vermiculite is what I use the most. I got top soil but it had steer manure which I didn't want to smell etc. I still need to try top soil though, although I've read on arachnoboards that the majority of top soil has manure so I've always been apprehensive and confused about using it. Anyway sorry my comments are typically so long, this was hilarious and I enjoyed this video a lot. Tom and you are some of the absolute best. 🖤🕷️

I started making my own substrate a few months ago as well and it's been great. The best test I had for it was my T. stirmi's and H. laticeps' enclosures and so far, so good!

This was a great vid thanks for the good info 👍

Ha ha ha ha Coco coir.... Loved that clip. Awesome job. Ha. ❤️❤️❤️ Happy new year from Canada🇨🇦

Sorry for all the comments😂 I was just introduced to your videos. I wonder if that was truly peat that molded in one day🤔 you speaking of acidity makes tons of sense. I was told it was straight peat when the spider (OBT) was sold to me at Repticon. Coco does collapse on my spiders all the time. Especially my light webbers

"tapate la pinche boca" haha i want that shirt

Ive been using soil and dirt straight from our garden. Got to mix a little coco fiber because it makes the terrariums pretty damn heavy but it hold moist for a very long time. I even get my green moss from the woods. Seems totally fine

Awesome buddy great content as always 👌🕷

I started out using pure cocoa fibre too but now I have tubs of cocoa fibre, topsoil, peat compost and vermiculite and instead of mixing it all at once I make substrate as I need it and the proportions vary depending on spider, depending on how much moisture they like and whether they dig or not.

Nice vid. Greetings from Finland!

Missed this one, damn!

Tks T H very helpful

Its great to see our own sp in your own collection... Philippine tangerine...

Keep up the content bud! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Cool shirt.

I think the thing with mold also depends on where you live (because of different temperatures and air humidities), doesn't it? I am from Germany and coconut fiber works well for me. Looking forward to the unboxing; it is gonna be cool.

Perfect timing

I realize that this vid is a little old but I am doing some substrate research and have a question about the top soil. What are you doing with what's left in the bag? I rolled mine up and left it in the garage. When I went to use it again, it had mold in it because of the packing moisture, I'm guessing. Should this just be laid out to completely dry before storing? What was your experience with the left over soil?

Yo that shirt 😂 I'm a need a shirt like that asap

Just sticking with coco fiber for right now. I've never had a mold issue, probably because my ventilation is good. I may try your mixture if I get a moisture dependant species. I just haven't bought any of those to date. But this is good information in case I do develop a problem.

Great video Alex!

Great video. Another thing I learned about making ur own substrate is "no one does it better than u". By that I mean u have to find ur own mix. I use 50/50 Coco fiber (burpee's) and top soil (timberline). After that I add vermiculite and sand until I see what I'm looking for. Really the same goes for my beginning 50/50 mix as well. I use this for every species u own. From my apophysis, Avics, pokies, devamatha, and even my Brachypelma. Matter of fact my giant centipedes have the same substrate. If u never give up on finding what substrate u need to create, it will happen. Just takes time. I'm always improving my mix. Try sand for ur burrowing species and let me know what u think. Really helps with there burrows. I've also used clay in the mix and that works even better. It's just harder for me to come by. I get the clay from AZ and NM when I travel out there

Hi Alex is the peat moss organic? Cause I've been having loads problems with mold in my enclosures 1st I had just coco fibre in them and then I made my own mix up using organic top soil vermiculite and exo terra forest moss and still I'm having problems with moss whether it's little patches where it's built up but in some off my enclosures it looks like the whole surface off the substrate has got white mold spores on it it's really annoying I think it's the exo terra forest moss that I added or I might off over wetted it when I 1st mixed it up cause I've got moisture dependent species so I'll be changing the substrate out in all my enclosures for a new mix like the 1 you've just made up.

Your shirt is cool.

The intro LOL. MOLDDDD.

Awesome t-shirt 🤣

It would be grat if Tom was to market this substrate, and including UK so I can get it too , 😉

What is the best mix substrate for terrestial burrow enclosure? Greetings from The Netherlands

Hi Mr G, I had graduated around April 2020

I've heard you also live in FL? I'm in SW, near the beach (less than one mile) & anything OTHER than coco molds so badly. I've had zero issues with mold. Now, I've had to experiment with this. I add ventilation on top of ventilation, for my moisture dependant species I use some coco, some creature soil, leaf litter & spring tails. Never a problem. Anything with peat moss? Molds in a day. The substrate from Jamie's? Molded in 2 days😂 I think it's interesting how diff subs work for different people.

I heard springtails can eat a tarantula after they moult. Is there a way to prevent this?

I used top soil once and a couple weeks later, the fungus gnats arrived. They took forever to go away. Since then, I won’t allow top soil in the house.

I bought Eco Earth cocoa fiber blocks for my phidippus audax. I used it as substrate and also made a false wall for his enclosure. All went well and I kept on misting the enclosure for my little guy to have water. Then, I found him curled up in the bottom of his house one day, stone-cold dead. I had to poke my head in there to see him and make sure he was actually gone and when I did, got a whiff of that telltale musty smell. I was devastated. I was always told cocoa fiber doesn't mold. What a letdown. My poor jumper. RIP, Number Two.

Im from Florida .. mold is everywhere

Can you do a video about tiny white mites?

You should try lugarti's premium tarantula substrate, and do a review on it. I use it, and it is the best substrate you can buy straight off the shelf. Just my opinion.

where did you get your shirt? 👀❤️

for my substrate I used a mix of EcoEarth Coco fiber and topsoil from home depot.. seemed to work fine. Nice video Alex. A lot of people will find this one useful.

Were those magic mushrooms 🍄 😋 ??? Much Love to you and your family ❤

12:37 Using a screen would help better and sifting through the top soil will be faster.

Boil the substrate in hot water then let it dry out??? Wonder if boiling water would be enough to kill off those mild spores?

Watched this video in my car while waiting to sell some roaches. Needless to say, my 10” subwoofers made this video more awesome than it already is!!!!! I mix vermiculite in coco fibre

I just bought the same topsoil you have there there in the video.. I found it has a ton of wood in it . Is did you find the same?

I really like the zoo Ned creatures soil it’s only 4 bucks for a quart. I use it for all my slings.

I see this vid is 2 yrs old. Im researching the best substate to use. Are you still useing toms substrate?

You haven't tried springtails?

No matter how wet I keep peat moss, it never seems to favor the growth of fungi.

Oh & let me know how it goes with this mix & you being in FL with high humidity.

The key to controlling mold is ventilation. Mold needs stagnant air so use movement is key. Also the reason you see bad outbreaks in Coco when used alone is because it lacks the microorganisms like Bacteria that's in soil that break down organic matter so it's sat there decomposing very slowly and essentially leaving it to mold

I haven't had any problems with Coco fiber

I have been mixing my own substrate since 2015

I dont have mold in any of my enclosures, but I know that now that I've seen this video about it I will find mold in a couple of them.

I use cocopeat

Add springtails they eat mold

isn't 2 weeks a bit too short to draw conclusions? i dont get mold development for months most of the time

Never use the stuff anymore Coir is just a mould haven have had many mould issues on coir just use a brand name substrate called spiderlife here in the UK which is topsoil with vermiculite had not even half of the issues since I changed over plus springtails eat mould and boluses so a sprinkling of springtails and good ventilation with topsoil and sand/vermiculite as worked well

I do have a dead cat on my microphone but!

I have never ever had moid growing on the substrate and i have been inthe hobby for 20 years. I have had mold on dead crickets and boluses in slingenclosures that are kept moist,but never on any substrate. I use 90 % pure peatmoss and i havehad mushrooms growing pretty often. But thats not mold. Regarding funghus, inever change substrate and have never had problems with tarantulas. I have a E murinus set up for 2 years in the same enclosure, and funghus started to grow from the getgo. The tarantula act normal. It eats, moults and grows in this enclosure. But i dont use peat since i have heard that ut is very bad forthe nature. They take it from peatbogs and this causes problem fir nature. I dont have a karge collection nowdays and the substrate is from an very old bale of peat, that i have had for very long time, or i reuse old substrate. I would not buy peat if i had to buy more substrate. I probably wiuld have used topsoil

The yellow mushroom is dog vomit mold it lives in rotting material and you don’t see it until the material it lives in gets too dry forcing the mold to make a mushroom so it can germinate and grow in a piece of rotting material with the right moisture content I don’t panic when seeing mold there’s just one mold that harms tarantulas it’s called cordyceps it lives in tropical environments and looks like a worm (the monsters in the game the last of us are based on this mold)

I have fallen in love with you! You're beautiful!

I don’t get a lot of mold problem. cleaning your room might help a little.

First!

so far so good on my side no mold, my secret weapon springtails at least 25% of my enclosure substrate is springtail culture

😂Corona virus🤣

I bought my wife a new blender and confiscated her old one to mix up soil works great after the sticks are picked out.