Does Redworm Composting Reduce Pathogens in Waste?
March 27th, 2009
Via a pointer from Dan Matsch, I looked at some of the work that Clive Edwards has done. One paper, “The Effectiveness of Vermiculture in Human Pathogen Reduction for USEPA Biosolids Stabilization” (pdf) is interesting. The researchers basically piled human feces (dewatered biosolids between 15 and 20 percent solids) into two windrows. They then innoculated both windrows with a variety of pathogen indicators, and one with a significant number of E. Fetida worms.
The results? After 144 hours (12 days), the windrow with the worms had significantly less pathogens than the one without:
Interesting stuff. It would be hard to do this outside of a commercial facility, since the biosolids were not 100 percent feces, you’d need a large number of worms, and to let the worms work undisturbed for two weeks. But it certainly is interesting that rewdorms are responsible (in some manner!) for such a large amount of pathogen reduction. (I’ve worried about pathogens in worm bins before.)
This also reminds me of a chapter from the Solviva book, where the author discusses various composting toilets (including a flush toilet), and her successes with using earthworms there.
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6 Comments Add your own
1. Questions: Plant diseases&hellip | November 15th, 2009 at 11:15 am
[...] that normal composting does. That heat is what kills plant diseases. While redworms have shown effectiveness in dealign with human pathogens, and vermicompost helped supress several plant diseases [PDF], I was unable to find anything [...]
2. Adding redworms to a desi&hellip | February 2nd, 2010 at 11:19 am
[...] to stabilize sewage sludge. Here’s an article about redworms reducing pathogens (a topic I reviewed last year). This is an interesting article on how feedstock affects E. Foetida weight and length (pdf). [...]
3. Richard Masoner | August 24th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
I’m hunting for information about the possible spread of plant pathogens with vermicompost, but all I can find is information about human pathogens like what you posted here. Do you happen to have info on plant pathogens, especially resistant viruses like the tobacco mosaic virus?
Thanks!
4. vermicomposting | August 30th, 2010 at 9:24 am
Hi Richard,
I don’t. Have you looked on google scholar ( http://scholar.google.com/ )? That’s where I start when looking for scientific research around redworms.
Dan
5. Richard Masoner | September 11th, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Thanks for that suggestion. I found nothing specific to spreading plant pathogens, but I did run across this interesting study that suggests the biotic nature of vermicompost suppresses the soil fungus that causes tomato wilt.
6. vermicomposting | September 16th, 2010 at 8:06 am
Richard, thanks for sharing that link. Good luck!
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