{"id":17747,"date":"2021-09-29T07:51:28","date_gmt":"2021-09-29T11:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/?p=17747"},"modified":"2021-09-29T16:20:51","modified_gmt":"2021-09-29T20:20:51","slug":"spearmint-growing-walked-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it safe to use spearmint growing where dogs are walked?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Question:<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/spearmint.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-12618\" src=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/spearmint-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"spearmint\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\"><\/a>I would like to use some spearmint growing in a neighbor&#8217;s landscape garden. Since the garden is next to the street where dogs are walked, a neighbor in my building (who is hyper cautious, I might add) advised against eating the mint because of concern that dogs may have peed on the plants at some point. I figured if I washed it thoroughly that it should be fine. (Also, it is far enough from the street that I doubt too many dogs made it that far!) Shouldn&#8217;t it be okay to use it as long as it&#8217;s washed well?<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>Answer:<\/h3>\n<p><em>Frank S. Wertheim, Extension Educator \u2013 Agriculture\/Horticulture<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The risks due to dog urine contact would be much less with time since the dog may have urinated there; fresh dog urine would be more likely to carry leptospirosis, a pathogen of people too. The risk of lepto isn&#8217;t high, given that most dogs have been vaccinated against it. Much bigger risks come from our lovely little rodents that love running around in dense plantings and are a lot more likely to carry pathogens (lepto, salmonella, etc.).&nbsp; That said, neither is likely to be an important factor if the spearmint (or veggies) are well rinsed prior to use.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Animal urine is a good source of nitrogen (in general), and less of an infectious disease issue than fecal material. Dog feces can contain pathogens that affect us, including dog roundworms (ascarids) and some species of tapeworms. Please see our Extension Bulletin #1002, <a href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/publications\/1002e\/\"><em>Echinococcus granulosus canadensis<\/em> (EG) in Maine Moose: Suggestions for Dog Owners<\/a>. Keeping animals out of the garden is a good idea, and washing garden produce is an important help in general food safety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: I would like to use some spearmint growing in a neighbor&#8217;s landscape garden. Since the garden is next to the street where dogs are walked, a neighbor in my building (who is hyper cautious, I might add) advised against eating the mint because of concern that dogs may have peed on the plants at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[199,202,204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask","category-maintenance","category-pests"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Is it safe to use spearmint growing where dogs are walked? - Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard - University of Maine Cooperative Extension<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is it safe to use spearmint growing where dogs are walked? - Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard - University of Maine Cooperative Extension\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Question: I would like to use some spearmint growing in a neighbor&#8217;s landscape garden. Since the garden is next to the street where dogs are walked, a neighbor in my building (who is hyper cautious, I might add) advised against eating the mint because of concern that dogs may have peed on the plants at [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-29T11:51:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-09-29T20:20:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/spearmint-300x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mmichaud\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mmichaud\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"mmichaud\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/#\/schema\/person\/e8da916d8ef86f00b084b750569fb9d8\"},\"headline\":\"Is it safe to use spearmint growing where dogs are walked?\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-09-29T11:51:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-09-29T20:20:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/\"},\"wordCount\":299,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/spearmint-300x300.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Ask the Expert\",\"Garden Design and Maintenance\",\"Managing Insect, Diseases, and Animal Pests\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/\",\"name\":\"Is it safe to use spearmint growing where dogs are walked? - Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard - University of Maine Cooperative Extension\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/spearmint-300x300.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-09-29T11:51:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-09-29T20:20:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/#\/schema\/person\/e8da916d8ef86f00b084b750569fb9d8\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/spearmint-300x300.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/spearmint-300x300.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Is it safe to use spearmint growing where dogs are walked?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/\",\"name\":\"Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard\",\"description\":\"Information you can use. Research you can trust.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/#\/schema\/person\/e8da916d8ef86f00b084b750569fb9d8\",\"name\":\"mmichaud\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e35fc97fb555769a76491e9537ef4f50c9354b3b2affd267427097817da6017a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e35fc97fb555769a76491e9537ef4f50c9354b3b2affd267427097817da6017a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"mmichaud\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/author\/mmichaud\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is it safe to use spearmint growing where dogs are walked? - Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard - University of Maine Cooperative Extension","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is it safe to use spearmint growing where dogs are walked? - Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard - University of Maine Cooperative Extension","og_description":"Question: I would like to use some spearmint growing in a neighbor&#8217;s landscape garden. Since the garden is next to the street where dogs are walked, a neighbor in my building (who is hyper cautious, I might add) advised against eating the mint because of concern that dogs may have peed on the plants at [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/","og_site_name":"Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard","article_published_time":"2021-09-29T11:51:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-09-29T20:20:51+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/spearmint-300x300.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"mmichaud","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"mmichaud","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/"},"author":{"name":"mmichaud","@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/#\/schema\/person\/e8da916d8ef86f00b084b750569fb9d8"},"headline":"Is it safe to use spearmint growing where dogs are walked?","datePublished":"2021-09-29T11:51:28+00:00","dateModified":"2021-09-29T20:20:51+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/"},"wordCount":299,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/spearmint-300x300.jpg","articleSection":["Ask the Expert","Garden Design and Maintenance","Managing Insect, Diseases, and Animal Pests"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/","url":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/","name":"Is it safe to use spearmint growing where dogs are walked? - Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard - University of Maine Cooperative Extension","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/spearmint-300x300.jpg","datePublished":"2021-09-29T11:51:28+00:00","dateModified":"2021-09-29T20:20:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/#\/schema\/person\/e8da916d8ef86f00b084b750569fb9d8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/spearmint-300x300.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/09\/spearmint-300x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/2021\/09\/29\/spearmint-growing-walked-dogs\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is it safe to use spearmint growing where dogs are walked?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/#website","url":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/","name":"Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard","description":"Information you can use. Research you can trust.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/#\/schema\/person\/e8da916d8ef86f00b084b750569fb9d8","name":"mmichaud","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e35fc97fb555769a76491e9537ef4f50c9354b3b2affd267427097817da6017a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e35fc97fb555769a76491e9537ef4f50c9354b3b2affd267427097817da6017a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"mmichaud"},"url":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/author\/mmichaud\/"}]}},"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":199,"label":"Ask the Expert"},{"value":202,"label":"Garden Design and Maintenance"},{"value":204,"label":"Managing Insect, Diseases, and Animal Pests"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"mmichaud","author_link":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/author\/mmichaud\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":199,"name":"Ask the Expert","slug":"ask","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":199,"taxonomy":"category","description":"This is the top level category for all posts submitted to our Ask the Expert gardening questions form.","parent":0,"count":652,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":199,"category_count":652,"category_description":"This is the top level category for all posts submitted to our Ask the Expert gardening questions form.","cat_name":"Ask the Expert","category_nicename":"ask","category_parent":0},{"term_id":202,"name":"Garden Design and Maintenance","slug":"maintenance","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":202,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":199,"count":190,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":202,"category_count":190,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Garden Design and Maintenance","category_nicename":"maintenance","category_parent":199},{"term_id":204,"name":"Managing Insect, Diseases, and Animal Pests","slug":"pests","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":204,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":199,"count":196,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":204,"category_count":196,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Managing Insect, Diseases, and Animal Pests","category_nicename":"pests","category_parent":199}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17747"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17793,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17747\/revisions\/17793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.umaine.edu\/gardening\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}