Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I don't know enough about microbiology to make a fair assessment, to be honest. I would think that if worms are ingesting the poop, or crawling around in it, then they have a potential to have these harmful bacteria on/in them, so I don't know if purging/rinsing them would be enough. But like I said, im not a microbiologist, so I prefer to err on the side of caution, especially when it comes to feeding my family.

I don't know enough about microbiology to make a fair assessment, to be honest. I would think that if worms are ingesting the poop, or crawling around in it, then they have a potential to have these harmful bacteria on/in them, so I don't know if purging/rinsing them would be enough. But like I said, im not a microbiologist, so I prefer to err on the side of caution, especially when it comes to feeding my family.


Fair enough. I will let you know how my outcome goes but Im letting my worm colony get established befre I start pulling them out to feed.

IMO there are some easy thing to do that would prevent this problem if it does arise. Soaking the worms in colloidal silver or a diluted tinctured oregano will kill all the above mentioned pathogens like ecoli salmonella etc in 6 min, guaranteed, 95% will be killed in 2 min. I could provide links but dont want to go through the effort. I dont know if these steps would be necessarry but we shall see

Let me know what guinea pig tastes like, it seems very close to rat - ugh ... but they are way easier than rabbits.
That said I spend very little time per day tending to my rabbits, which are delecious! And quail breed all summer when the rabbits dont....

I have seen several studies showing that composting worms can reduce human pathogens. Basically "good" bacteria outcompetes the "bad" ones.
Here's some research.
http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/michel/csu.pdf

Yep.. worms are marvelous little creatures...

historically maggots have also been known and used to reduce pathogenic bacteria

Apparently physicians in Napoleon's army used the larvae to clean wounds. Now they've even coined the term 'Maggot Therapy' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggot_therapy)

here's a medical study done: http://jmm.sgmjournals.org/content/57/5/617.full

..oh just read some more however:

"In vitro studies have shown that maggots inhibit and destroy a wide range of pathogenic bacteria including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), group A and B streptococci, and Gram-positive aerobic and anaerobic strains. Other bacteria like Pseudomonas aeruginosa, E.coli or Proteus spec are not attacked by maggots and in case of Pseudomonas even the maggots are in danger."

that's a shame

I'm wondering the same thing. From a gardening perspective, goat poo and rabbit poo are two of the manures they say can be put directly on your veggies without composting first. I'm brand new to aquaponics, though, so I don't know what different issues might be involved there.

I personally would be more concerned about the poultry manure. Not from a disease perspective, but poultry manure is HOT! It will burn plants and needs to be composted before applying to anything. Worms don't like it in high quantities, either.

Dana