Soiled Hands, Wormy Worries

 I happened upon the topic of a guest on a garden show stirring up the Chicago garden community. I became unhealthily obsessed with finding out about roundworms, dogs and their “byproducts”, and the food safety of vegetables grown where animals leave their feces.

Wow, did I find out a lot.
I was disturbed by the subject because I have had both dogs and cats and they have the run of the place. The cats especially love to use my vegetable garden as their private litter box…which makes me very angry. When really bothered I spread lots of old pepper on the surface of the soil. It helps a little for a short time.

Anyway…. what are some things I found out about this icky subject?
One of the most informative sites was The Worms and Germs Blog
If you want to kill roundworm infestations of eggs… it needs extreme heat (flaming). Living in an urban area would require getting permission from the fire dept.

Dogs only transfer roundworm infestations if they are infected or pass through and area that is infected ( then it is on their fur). Raccoons are the bigger problem.
The trouble is that you don’t know the history of the dogs of your neighborhood, so precautions need to be made.

The infection with parasite eggs in vegetables is not through the plant tissues, but by contamination of the soil. Scrubbing your veggies helps, and anytime your hands are in contact with the soil there is possibility of contamination. Wear gloves, but still wash your hands thoroughly.

Hear of Raccoon latrines? Neither had I. They are the greatest concern for health issues. We have a bunch of raccoon out here in the country, but cities have them too. Raccoon seem to have communal latrines and they are full of all sorts of parasites and health problem issues. they are particularly rife with roundworm infestation. And if your dog noses around them, that is one place they can pick up a problem themselves.

This is my contribution to the conversation.
sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite. Oh yes, that could be the topic of another post, but it freaks me out a little too much.

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© 2010 written for Ilona’s Garden Journal. Copyrights apply.