Mold in ExoTerra enclosure

[mphelps]

To anyone with experience with glass enclosures (terraria/vivaria):

I cleaned and replanted several 12x12x18 ExoTerra in which I keep pygmies. This included completely emptying the ExoTerra down to an empty glass terrarium and building all the layers back up again. So that no unwanted biological contaminant would be transferred from the previous cage occupant to the new cage occupant, I baked pieces of grapevine which were in the cages. When I returned the grapevine to the enclosures, they became covered with mold within just 36 hours.

The setting on my misting system are exactly the same. All parameters are basically the same. Yet, I have never seen mold like this.

Does anyone know why? More important, how do I control the mold? I just bought a culture of springtails to release into the ExoTerras, but there aren't many springtails in the culture yet.

 

[stalincat]

I'm not a pro, but I would think that it is probably due to bad ventilation and really high humidity. I kept my baby in a glass enclosure for a little while. I've noticed that humidity at night goes up to 90% and when you open the doors, it reeks. Seriously, it smelled like death. He didn't stay there for long.
I would move your babies to a different enclosure. If you can't, at least chuck out those branches and clean the viv thoroughly as mold spores spread easily.

 

[mphelps]

I'm not a pro, but I would think that it is probably due to bad ventilation and really high humidity. I kept my baby in a glass enclosure for a little while. I've noticed that humidity at night goes up to 90% and when you open the doors, it reeks. Seriously, it smelled like death. He didn't stay there for long.
I would move your babies to a different enclosure. If you can't, at least chuck out those branches and clean the viv thoroughly as mold spores spread easily.

I've been keeping a variety of smaller montane species in glass cages for years without incident. I have no idea what caused his immediate growth of mold on branches which had been baked. I was hoping for a biologically-based solution.