Decontaminating a yard used as a doggie toilet

[Noisette's_Maman]

My DH and I just closed on a small fixer-upper in the city of Cambridge, MA which has about a 1000 sq. ft. back yard. The previous inhabitants, who weren't much on housekeeping or yardkeeping, had an elderly husky that used the yard as a toilet for who knows how many years.

I have 2 small kids and I'd love to have them play in the yard but I'm thinking it's not safe at the moment...unless it has a cover of snow!

Does anyone here have advice about what we can do now or later to improve the conditions of the yard? I was hoping that cleaning up any visible doggy doo and raking the yard, then letting it sit for the winter would be good enough but now I'm wondering if I shouldn't add something (lime, gypsum?) to the yard after I rake it next weekend. There's not much of a 'lawn' at this time and if it were a month ago I would have added some grass seed but I think it's getting too cold for that now.

Anyone know how long bacteria might be a problem and if waiting for time and snow and rain to do their work will make a difference??

Thanks!
- Sara

[True Blue]

I can't imagine bacteria being a big problem..if anything the yard is probably very fertile, imo! Throw down some sod if it's not too late in the year to do so. That's what I would do, anyway.

[Marsupialmom]

You do realize that all sorts of animals use the yard as a bathroom? Squirls, rabits, birds?

Pick up the poo you can see and relax.

[kamilla626]

I don't know where else you would expect a dog to poop, if not outside on the ground.

The dog poop will just get washed into the soil along with the raccoon poop, rabbit poop, snake poop, mouse poop, skunk poop, possum poop, bird poop, bug poop, etc.

Bet you'll have a great garden!

[Noisette's_Maman]

Whew! I think you all misunderstand me.

It's not that I'm a total germaphobe or that I expected the dog to use the bathroom in the house. It's that these people let their dog #%(#$@! all over a very small yard and didn't clean it up at all. Yes, I realize that small animals are using my yard for their business...but they don't leave piles and piles of excrement around that my kids might play in.

[crl]

Hmm, I'm far from an expert but I would think the sun would kill any germs within a pretty short period of time. I think I would rake up any poop that's still recognizable as such and put it in the trash. Then I'd call it good.

If it's too late where you are for regular grass seed, you might consider annual rye just to keep the yard from being a mud pit over the winter. We just cleared a ton of brush from our recently acquired backyard and I'm thinking of investivating a winter cover crop like rye for that reason.

[AuntLavender]

Unless the dog had worms or something

Originally Posted by Noisette's_Maman

Whew! I think you all misunderstand me.

It's not that I'm a total germaphobe or that I expected the dog to use the bathroom in the house. It's that these people let their dog #%(#$@! all over a very small yard and didn't clean it up at all. Yes, I realize that small animals are using my yard for their business...but they don't leave piles and piles of excrement around that my kids might play in.

the poop will biodegrade and not harm your child.

If you areactually seeing piles of poop then take a hose and spray it until it dissolves and you can no longer see it (Viola! you hastened the biodegrading.)

or

You could also scoop it yourself.

Sincerely,
Debra, homeschooling mom of 4 ages 11(AS), 10, 8, and 4 1/2 (Apraxia, Dysarhtria, HFA, OCD)

[fek&fuzz]

Can you rent a rototiller and just till the ground and then put down new grass seed? That would make me feel better even if it didn't make a difference. If the yard is really small you could even turn it all over with a pitch fork.

[Josette Marie]

I wold clean up the poop you can see and then totally hose down the the whole yard. Let it dry then rotortiller it, hose it down again and let it dry. They sun does wonders.

p.s. I have a dog too.

[Katheda]

I can understand the concerns because most likely, the dog was medicated with heartworm and flea/tick prevention medicines as well as the typically vaccines and such. That all comes out in the end

Here's a good link with some ideas:
http://dogs.about.com/cs/generalcare...ring_clean.htm

[hipmummy]

I live on the north shore, you won't have to worry about it after it snows afew times and if it does not it will all freeze. whatever you can pick up frozen you can get rid of. Great thing about New England is dog poop somehow disappears in the winter.

[~Nikki~]

Great thing about New England is dog poop somehow disappears in the winter.

Ooh, that'd be wonderful. That hasn't been our experience at all! We don't currently have a dog, but I know that everytime the topic comes up, DH inevitably goes into a rant about how it was his "job" as a teen to do the spring doggy doo clean-up after the snow melted. The dog would do his business back there a few times a day, it would sink into the snow, out of sight.....and then in the spring when the snow melted, the yard full of dog feces would be exposed. Lovely!

Around here, the smell of spring includes the smell of freshly melted dog poo littering the edges of sidewalks. People get lazy about stooping and scooping in the winter, because they can just kick the snow over it and be done with it.

To the OP, just run around the yard with a pair of gloves or a scooper/shovel, and get rid of everything visible. Seed the lawn in the spring, if it's too late to do it now, which will take care of any bare spots. Once the bulk of the poo is gone, it should be fine by spring.

[2Sweeties1Angel]

It's just poop, no big deal. It's good fertilizer. If it bothers you that much, just pick it up and throw it in the garbage.

I've lived out in the country most of my life and my yard has been used as a toilet by animals ranging from cats to bears. Poop doesn't bother me. Unless it's duck poop--that stuff NEVER seems to go away. We still have some out there and the ducks have been dead for over 6 months...