How to sanitize my yard that dog pooped on
We recently moved in. I have never owned a dog. Our contractor has a dog and brought it here while he worked. I was trying to be nice and welcomed the dog but didn't think that our newly laid lawn which we spent thousands of dollars so that our kids can run and play bare foot will become a luxurious doggie bathroom. Now it has several dirty bald patches where dog pooped and then there are knats that bite aggressively and bugs swarming over the yard. I have more than dozen bug bites. Over the holidays, the dog had pooped and someone stepped on the poop and then the lawn got mowed over the poop. When we came back from the trip, I put on latex gloves and tried to pull off the smeared on, sticky poop as much as I could but it's no use. I think I made it worse.
Now, we have a poopy yard with dog poop lodged and smeared on grass and I can't have the dream backyard with kids roaming free anymore after spending $$$.
Does anyone know of a way to hit a restart button on the lawn other than strip the newly laid sod and re-sod?
I read about putting lime power on the lawn to dissolve the poop. I put the lime power but then I can't find instructions on what to do next. Do I just leave the powder on? Do I hose it down after a certain number of days? If it rains again, do I put the power stuff again? It's nasty and burns skin and I accidentally inhaled it and my throad is burning. :-(
If you have an idea of how I can clean and sanitize our backyard so that my kids can run free, please help! Thank you.
Parent Replies
Your contractor should never have allowed his dog to poop on your lawn and if it happened accidentally somehow he should have picked it up immediately. Every responsible dog owner picks up the poop RIGHT AWAY. Having said that though—I'm not sure I entirely understand your panic about it. The remnants of dog poop disappear relatively quickly once you pick it up. If it's particularly runny (sorry, gross, I know) just spray it with the hose or wait for a few days of rain. That plus slugs, ants, and the other garbage-eating parts of nature will get rid of it within a week or so.
And I'm not sure a "sanitized" backyard is really possible even if you did re-sod. Cats will poop in it, skunks, raccoons, and rats will poop in it. There's no way to prevent this. But if you let the bugs, rain, etc. do what they do naturally your backyard will be perfectly okay for children to play in.
Dog poop disappears very quickly. A good rain will take care of it, or you could just wash it off with a hose. It'll be fine!
I don't see how there could possibly still have been dog poop in your lawn weeks after the dog visited (if I understand the chronology correctly - the holidays were over a month ago). The dog poop is not the only thing that would cause bald spots on your perfect lawn, and as the other poster said, you can hardly keep birds, cats or other creatures from doing what they do on your lawn. I also do not think that the dog doo drew in all the bugs and gnats you imagine. I think you need to readjust your expectations about your perfect yard, and do your best to keep it up, not start over. Keeping a perfect lawn is a high effort activity. Lime could make things worse, if your soil is already high in alkaline. Good luck.
First of all, bald patches are usually due to dog urine not poop (I have 2 dogs, 2 kids and some ugly grass). Secondly, if your kids have ever played in the grass at a park there's a very high chance an animal may have pooped there at some point. Poop remnants will dry up and essentially disappear within days, especially in warm weather. And if you're watering the grass it should be washed away by now anyways. Your kids will be fine, a sanitized yard does not exist and it's actually healthy to expose them to germs and bacteria in the natural environment. Birds, cats, rodents and worms are probably pooping in your yard on a daily basis! Don't stress about this. Do not put lime powder on the lawn. Just have your kids wash their hands before eating and rinse their feet or bathe before bed. I'm not sure what kind of bugs you have but just make sure there is no standing water that could be breeding mosquitos. Now go play outside :)
It would be a valuable lesson to your kids to teach them to watch where they're running - they'll need this skill to avoid dog poop for their entire lives! In all kinds of settings!