Thank goodness for bulb guards!!

The weirdest thing happened, during the night one of my last two vivs running on bulbs (I'm switching to heat mats as and when I can afford to do so) popped free from the metal part and was caught, conveniently by the bulb guard. I woke up as normal and did my morning checks in the reptile room to find it just sitting inside the guard, so glad I never, ever have an exposed bulb, imagine a hot bulb falling on a reptile!! So, that's one more reason to go the way of heat mats and thermostats I guess!

I change any bulbs I have on a regular basis because even after a couple of months of use, I have had them almost disintegrate where the glass meets the metal connection & even when removing them you still get the odd one that will snap and this is not the cheap ones either so anyone who uses a bulb without a guard is taking so many risks with their animals, not worth it at all in my opinion.

That was a lucky one Choo! Do not know if the glass could have hurt the snake though...snakes are tough!
I am not using bulbs at all. Seen some really bad burns on a ball python caused by the lack of bulb guard and a careless keeper. Snakes do not need UV light, so heat mats are perfect for them.
Had the same problem w the bulbs as you TAN, and once they stuck in the socket without the bulb.. it is bloody hard to get the screw part out. :)

What if the snake was underneath the bulb when the hot bulb fell? Glass is one thing, hot glass is another!! I do like heat mats, but I do have some display vivariums that use bulbs for heat and they look fantastic so it's not all bad, but they're so fragile and break even when you don't touch them so that's a bit annoying but as I said, apart from display vivariums I'm mostly heat mats and thermostats.

Yeah, you are right. I haven't thought about hot glass, and display vivs need lighting. Having a bulb guard was a good idea. :) When I used to have display vivs, I placed the bulbs outside the viv, usually it was above the metal mesh I used for ventilation at the top.