3 ms·

This comes up quite frequently in the vermiculture forums. No one really has a definitive answer based on evidence (e.g. counts of pathogenic fecal coliforms) A

This comes up quite frequently in the vermiculture forums. No one really has a definitive answer based on evidence (e.g. counts of pathogenic fecal coliforms) A middle of the road approach would be to run it through a cycle of hot composting.

brnaftr361 4y ago
You can pasteurize poop. Granted it would be a pretty inglorious process, but it's not unheard of in certain communities. In my experience it's typically horse excrement which has an entirely different composition, but I imagine that could be remediated without much additional effort. Coconut coir, sphagnum moss, grass clippings. I can't imagine why the process would be ineffectual (other than emitting smell loud enough to be heard for miles), but I'm no microbiologist.
- soperj 4y ago
  If you're composting it properly, it doesn't really have any smell at all, except dirt. It's when you don't move it around, and it starts to compost anaerobically that it starts to produce methane, and then you've got a pile of stink on your hands.
  - Pulcinella 4y ago
    I believe methane itself doesn’t really have much of a smell. It’s things produced alongside the methane like ammonia and certain other nitrogen compounds, sulfur compounds, and carboxylic acids (particularly short chain fatty-acids like acetic acid and butyric acid).
- thatcat 4y ago
  You can use microwave device to sterilize it and test for harmful pathogens or total activity using respiration rate or total cfu count to confirm process
- bergenty 4y ago
  This is very different than cow or horse poop. Herbivore poop doesn’t really stink and in many places it’s just mixed with water and lies in an open bit to compost.
boruto 4y ago
Worst part of my summer holidays as kid was picking pig poop for the yard farm. My father used to say pig poop is better than cattle though I doubt his reasoning is scientific.
- ethbr0 4y ago
  > pig poop is better than cattle I did read [0] that omnivores have higher microbial diversity in their excrement. They were specifically referring to human vs ungulate shit, but I'd assume the same applies to pigs. [0] Zeihan, The End of the World is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization, first chapter

brnaftr361 4y ago

You can pasteurize poop. Granted it would be a pretty inglorious process, but it's not unheard of in certain communities. In my experience it's typically horse excrement which has an entirely different composition, but I imagine that could be remediated without much additional effort. Coconut coir, sphagnum moss, grass clippings. I can't imagine why the process would be ineffectual (other than emitting smell loud enough to be heard for miles), but I'm no microbiologist.

soperj 4y ago
If you're composting it properly, it doesn't really have any smell at all, except dirt. It's when you don't move it around, and it starts to compost anaerobically that it starts to produce methane, and then you've got a pile of stink on your hands.
- Pulcinella 4y ago
  I believe methane itself doesn’t really have much of a smell. It’s things produced alongside the methane like ammonia and certain other nitrogen compounds, sulfur compounds, and carboxylic acids (particularly short chain fatty-acids like acetic acid and butyric acid).
thatcat 4y ago
You can use microwave device to sterilize it and test for harmful pathogens or total activity using respiration rate or total cfu count to confirm process
bergenty 4y ago
This is very different than cow or horse poop. Herbivore poop doesn’t really stink and in many places it’s just mixed with water and lies in an open bit to compost.

boruto 4y ago

Worst part of my summer holidays as kid was picking pig poop for the yard farm. My father used to say pig poop is better than cattle though I doubt his reasoning is scientific.

ethbr0 4y ago
> pig poop is better than cattle I did read [0] that omnivores have higher microbial diversity in their excrement. They were specifically referring to human vs ungulate shit, but I'd assume the same applies to pigs. [0] Zeihan, The End of the World is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization, first chapter