composting dog poop

by bridgette devin
(rsa)

Hello. I am delighted to have found a site that deals with composing pet pop.

I have a lot of dogs and i started composting the pop using red wrigglers. I don't have a worm farm confined to a bin but compost in the open mixing the pop with organic garden waste.

I am aware of salmonella and e.Coli but i assumed that these become degraded by being ingested by the worms therefore neutralized.

I accumulated an enormous amount of compost which i established vegetable grow out beds with.

I would appreciate some feedback.

Kind regards
B Devin.


Answer:

Hello Bridgette,

I am glad to hear that you are recycling your dog poop with the help of compost worms. The red wrigglers (Eisenia fetida) are generally hardy creatures and love to feed on nearly any decomposing organic matter including dog poop. They don't need to live in confined spaces but and as long as their basic living requirements are met you can raise and feed them wherever you like.

You have to keep their food and the living environment moist at all times and protect the worms against extreme heat or cold weather. They can tolerate temperatures between 5 and 30 degrees Celsius.

Concerning your question about the use of worm castings that have been produced by recycling dog poop I have to say that to date I haven't seen a totally conclusive study about the subject.
Having said that I know that several independent studies have shown that soil that contains earthworms and worm castings has reduced pathogens that have been previously in that environment and have always increased plant health and growth.

In our own vegetable gardens we have regularly used worm castings that have been produced from dog poop and have not experienced any negative effects up till now.

For more information about the positive effects of earthworms and worm castings copy and paste the URL from the bottom of this message into your browsing window and read some more about the subject.

http://www.ct.gov/caes/lib/caes/documents/publications/fact_sheets/plant_pathology_and_ecology/using_earthworms_to_improve_soil_health_and_suppress_diseases_01-27-12.pdf


Kind regards

Stephan
Editor of
www.worm-composting-help.com

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