Every Sunday morning for the past eight year , I ’ve co - host a radio syllabus bid “ The Organic Gardeners ” on KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh . We expend an hr every week reply gardening questions from callers and discussing all the late horticulture vogue . Over the years , we ’ve get a set of unusual questions and some have been asked multiple fourth dimension . When we get repeat calls , I always assume there must be a lot of folk out there question the accurate same matter .
I get asked one interrogative sentence in particular on a middling regular basis : “ Why ca n’t I sum up dog waste to my compost pile ? ” Just incase you ’ve been wondering the same thing , here ’s the resolution …
Doggie doo is not something you ever require to add to your compost pile . While it might seem that Fido leaves a pile of organic thing behind , it ’s constitutive matter that could check multiple sponge ( including click nematode , Toxocara canis , which survives the heat produced in a compost piling and can taint humans ) and other pathogens .
Inevitably the caller than ask , “ Does n’t cow manure have pathogens , too ? ” The short solution is yes , of course . There are pathogens in all excrement , but the diet and lifestyles of canine and cows are very different .
First and foremost , canines are carnivorous by nature , while cow and horses are not . The digestive system of animals that use up nitty-gritty - ground diets are filled with different organism than those that consume a veggie - based diet . The vegetation that shack in the catgut of a meat - use up animal , like a dog or big cat , can stimulate skin and digestive infections in humans and may contain parasitic worms . Many of these organisms can survive the compost process and can be transferred to humans who handle the compost or who eat any vegetable that amount in contact with it .
That ’s not to say that animals with vegetable - based diets do n’t hold dangerous pathogens , too . They certainly do — E. coli and Salmonella , for instance . It ’s just that some pathogen break-dance down in the compost pile while others do n’t . When handling manure of any kind , be certain to break glove and wash well when you are finished .
Excrement from all carnivorous animals ( including frump , Caterpillar and multitude ) should be keep out of the compost pile . This is specially dependable if you plan to use the resulting compost on your garden .
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