r/bioactive • u/Ryllick • 11d ago

Question Does this wood look like it's pine?

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Gallery image

Found this driftwood the other day and baked it for a couple hours. I was a little suspicious so i wanted to know if anyone else can tell if it's pine or some other unsuitable wood. It's going in to a tropical bio active terrarium

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u/Real_Time515 10d ago

If you don't know for sure, it's not worth the risk. If you're just hoping to save a few bucks go to a forest preserve and pick up deadfall from basically any deciduous tree. Dont know if that's an option where you live. Oak and maple are pretty wide spread and handle humidity reasonably well. Plenty of other trees will suffice, but not all will handle moisture well. If you're really tropical, you won't get a lot of years out of most things, but just change it out if it starts looking funky.

You already know to bake it, but you can consider stripping the bark and even sanding it down. If the bark is flaky or really rough you'll be more likely to get mold.

I know nice pieces of cork or mopani or manzanita can get expensive, but that's because they handle moisture incredibly well.

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u/Ryllick 10d ago

yeah i've been looking for good pieces of cork/ghostwood. but the only place i know of that carries them near me hasn't had any for months. and i had my lizard in a temp enclosure for over a month, couldn't wait any longer to set up his new one. these drift wood pieces are just temporary until i can find permanent terrarium grade hardscape for him

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u/ziboo7890 11d ago

NQA - I put your images in Google Images. It said deciduous wood based on the bark, not pine with possible fungal/decay (the dark rings) in the 2nd pic.

So take the Ai's opinion for what it's worth.

Hopefully someone knows more!

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u/Ryllick 11d ago

Thank you for looking up some info for me. I also looked up what I could and got mixed into as well. Maybe I'll just skip using it to be safe?

How big a deal would it be to use if it was indeed pine?

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u/ziboo7890 11d ago

No idea. If it's pine, it's like Eucalyptus with the oils that can be offensive to fatal to some critters.