|
Pages: [1]
|
 |
|
|
Author
|
Composting Pet Waste | (Read 491 times) |
|
MJ Solaro
Administrator
Posts: 131
|
 |
February 23, 2008, 08:38:10 AM |
|
Hi everybody. I'm fairly new to composting. We have a small worm-based composter.
What are the guidelines around composting things like your dog's poo? The cat's is a little more difficult to get at with all of the kitty litter, but the dog poo needs to go somewhere.
What are the types of things I should be worried about? Parasites? What he eats?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
paul wheaton
Administrator
Posts: 1342
|
|
February 23, 2008, 08:48:16 AM |
|
I am not certain, but I think that there are some issues about pathogens in dog poop that can harm humans.
If you have a first rate compost system, you should be able to eliminate 98% of those problems, but .... I think I would still have concerns.
An alternative approach would be to make a separate compost pile (or pit) and figure that that compost (or pit) is for non edible composting. So - suppose you had a spot for dog poop and you piled up the poop along with some sawdust ... after a year or two, you could plant some sort of tree there.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
laDiva2
Posts: 1
|
|
May 06, 2008, 06:34:45 PM |
|
My parents have raised beagles in their back yard for years, and Mom puts the poop around the rosebushes and waters it into the soil. They seem to like it (the roses, that is).
Robin 
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
kelda
Posts: 265
|
|
May 08, 2008, 07:35:13 PM |
|
Alert! DON'T use dog or cat poo in the garden! they need to be composted into virtually nothing because of the different microbes in there. I've had this discussion with many different water quality/ salmon steward folks. There's even this fancy publications for big cities that equates the mountains of untreated dog poo in backyards to the pathogen load if half the human population of that city just pooed on their lawn.
Gross.
I want salmon to come back and that means clean waterways.
So, there's this bacteria thing excerpted from an email below. There's a big fancy 'container' that your supposed to buy for it. But I think this will work just as well : half buried plant pot + poo + bacteria = healthy decomposition.
The bummer I've heard from people who try it is that you have to add fresh poo every few days or the bacteria die off. Maybe there's something when you could just 'add a pinch' of bacteria whenever poo-pickup time actually happens.
http://www.doggiedooley.com/
|
|
|
|
« Last Edit: May 08, 2008, 07:37:51 PM by kelda »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
rachael hamblin
Posts: 129
|
|
May 16, 2008, 10:06:20 PM |
|
But folks use humanure, wouldn't it be the same thing with dog poop? If you composted it anyway.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
paul wheaton
Administrator
Posts: 1342
|
|
May 17, 2008, 11:09:21 AM |
|
I think there are ways to have clean rivers and dog poop. I think there are also ways to have filthy rivers with no dog poop. I think the thing to do is to find the path where folks can have dogs and we have clean rivers.
As for dog/cat poop in the garden, I agree with kelda. I wouldn't put it in my garden.
As for a bio product that decomposes poop - it already exists in all healthy soil.
humanure: all successful uses I know of pretty much sterilize it first.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
kelda
Posts: 265
|
|
May 17, 2008, 01:59:03 PM |
|
To Rachael's comment: I guess no it's a little different from humanure, just different bacteria and stuff, so I've heard (so it's very subjective of course). And humanure I tend to think of for perennials or forest only, not any smaller veggies....
I think this bacteria stuff that was recommended actually just breaks it down (with the aid of soil bacteria since it's in the ground), until there's not much of anything left anyway. So the question of what to do with it after is kind of unnecessary.
I think it's kind of like the 'green cone' concept. Green cone is usually for food scraps but the design (pretty similar to doggie dooley) keeps things breaking down so fast that it rarely fills up.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
SueinWA
Posts: 313
|
|
October 15, 2008, 02:42:56 PM |
|
The bacteria in pet poop (any kind, really) is mostly a non-problem in a good compost pile.
BUT WAIT!
The real issue is the parasites, specifically roundworms. I worked for a vet for 12 years and still don't really understand the complicated way these worms 'operate' in the animals. But there's something about once the dog (esp) or cat has them, they kind of always have them to the extent they have eggs in their poop.
An extremely high percentage (some sources say 'almost all') of puppies are born with worms. then they're wormed and people think the problem is solved. But it's something like a Typhoid Mary problem: born with it or got it early, now shows no symptoms, but passes it on.
But then there are the eggs... they can live for many years in the soil, immune to extremes of heat or cold.
I try to do the best I can with my compost, turn it, moisten it, etc, but sometimes I still get weeds sprouting in my homemade potting mix, and that means not all the compost got high enough to kill off everything.
Don't do it!
Here's an article from Medscape Today: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/573090
Sue
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Jeremy_IL
Posts: 53
Workin' Central IL converted farmland
|
|
October 20, 2008, 10:13:11 AM |
|
Unilateral edicts are always hard for me to read. There will always be a dissenter (me, this time) who will say "I'd do that thing you say should never me done."
I'd do it. But I wouldn't plan on using my compost on things I'm gonna eat.
My compost pile is used to minimize my garbage stream, clean up the biodegradables (the quick ones anyway), and get a little somthing good out of the process. I use my compost on trees, flowers, bad lawn areas, wherever I'd like to jumpstart some life. I've used it to start veggie gardens too, but I guess I'm goofball that doesn't have that top of my list for using my compost. I'm not an every year user for my veggies...they do fine without it.
Currently, I don't put my 3 dogs' poop in the compost pile, just for laziness' sake. I have 3 acres, and I leave it where it lies and it goes away eventually. However, if I happened to have the 1/4 acre my father has, I'd be cleaning up like crazy and I wouldn't have a problem using my compost pile to dispose of the poop. Likely I'd avoid using it on my veggies, just for the mental ick factor of knowing that stuff's in there (I still have some poop issues to work through).
And if I should ever decide to make veggie-used compost I'd either have a separate pile or stop putting poop in. Would I worry about the worms I could have added to the area through years of composting poop? Prolly not any more than I'd worry about what happened to that patch of earth where I happened to put my pile before I got there. I guess I'm lazy minded too.
At any rate I wouldn't sweat the poop if you can say your pile isn't for edibles, and that makes it a bit less unilateral.
-Jeremy
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
SueinWA
Posts: 313
|
|
October 20, 2008, 02:12:05 PM |
|
Almost all of my compost is for veggies, which is why I wouldn't use it. I don't have enough compost (no matter how much I make) to put under the ornamentals and trees. If that's what you're doing, no problem.
But when most people ask about poop in compost, they're asking because of food contamination issues, and that's where the danger lies.
Sue
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Pages: [1]
|
|
|
|
|
