If you're a garden-loving dog owner, you may wonder whether dog waste composting is a safe process. Let's look at the pros and cons of dog waste composting to see if it's a workable plan for your family, your dog and your garden.
How Composting Works
Composting is a process that combines natural materials that might be considered garbage, such as dead leaves, grass clippings, eggshells, fruit and vegetable peelings, coffee grounds and ends of bread loaves, and makes them into useful garden nutrients.
You want to have a mixture of two parts brown (carbon-rich) material to one part green (nitrogen-rich material) in a successful compost pile. Add a small amount of fertilizer or compost starter mix to the pile to get the decomposition process started.
Most composters use a bin of some sort to contain their compost pile. Some of these can be purchased at a store, while others can be homemade. Make a pile of yard waste, wet it thoroughly, add kitchen waste as it becomes available, and stir the pile occasionally. In a few weeks or months, you'll have a pile that looks like healthy dirt, which is exactly what compost is.
Hot Composting
Compost piles can be divided into two main types: hot and cold. Hot compost piles use heat to decompose more quickly, and they are best created during periods of warm weather, like the summer. Properly mixed hot compost piles should reach internal temperatures of 130 degrees Fahrenheit, and materials should be broken down and useful for your garden within about a month.
Cold compost piles, on the other hand, break down over a period of six months to two years. You can create these at other times during the year and turn them into hot compost piles during periods of warmer weather.
Dog waste compost should contain a mixture of two parts carbon (such as sawdust) to one part waste, and the internal temperature must reach at least 140 degrees Fahrenheit to make the compost safe to use.
Worm Composting
Worms can be a helpful part of a cold compost pile, or they can be used on their own to create their own compost heap. Worms will readily work their way through a compost pile containing large amounts of vegetable matter, or they can be used to decompose dog waste safely.
Possible Health Problems with Dog Waste
One of the biggest drawbacks to dog waste composting is the potential human health threat from roundworm eggs in the waste. If they infect humans, roundworms can cause two potentially serious health conditions: visceral larval migrans or ocular visceral migrans. In the first condition, newly hatched worms can travel through a person's bloodstream to settle in their liver, lungs, heart, brain or spinal cord. In the second condition, the worms attack an infected person's retinas, causing blindness.
To kill roundworm eggs, the compost must reach an internal temperature of at least 140 degrees Fahrenheit. If you use a hot composting method, test the internal temperature of your compost pile with a long thermometer. You can also use the worm composting method to safely break down dog waste.
Regardless of the compost method used, use dog waste compost only on ornamental plants. Do not use it on or around food crops because the safety of vegetables and fruits grown with dog waste compost cannot be guaranteed.