Safe and Unsafe Wood

Written by Julia Crab (Kerie Campbell) Wednesday, 28 September 2005

Here follows a list of woods that can be used safely in a hermit crab environment. These are non-toxic woods that won’t hurt them if eaten. This list, as all the others, is not in any way complete, and will be expanded as new information is received.

Ash
Aspen
Birch
Cholla or Choya wood
Cork bark
Cypress (swamp variety, taxodium species) **not a suitable substrate!
Grape vine
Mangrove
Manzanita
Maple/Japanese Maple
Oak
Pear
Pecan
Poplar
Sycamore
Willow

Unsafe Woods

Apricot
Bitter Almond
Black Locust
Boxwood
Cherry
Cherry Laurel
Eucalyptus
Evergreen of any kind (pine, cedar, redwood, etc.)
Hemlock
Laurel
Mango
Nectarine
Peach
Plum
Walnut (added 2/2018 after consulting with invertebrate veterinarians)
Yew

As an alternative to the pine half logs you see for sale for reptiles, Petco is now selling fake (as in non wood!) pine half logs. Joy!