Microbes Save Vegas Casino $1.5 Million
The La Mirage Casino in Las Vegas has the terrific entertainment attraction of Siegfried and Roy's lions and tigers. It's all quite fabulous except for the fact that the urine from the big cats is so strong in their living areas that the casino has to completely remove and replace the grass sod on a weekly basis because of the awful urine ammonia odor and the dead grass areas. What a lot of work - and very expensive too!

The casino learned of Dr. Elaine Ingham, who is a soil scientist at Oregon State University, and asked for her assistance. She suggested that they set things up for beneficial microorganisms (beneficial bacteria, fungus, etc.) in the soil to do the work for them in detoxifying the big cats' urine.

This is what they did:

1. The next week they pulled out the dead grass (again)
2. They rototilled 30% compost soil into the ground to a depth of 6 inches
3. They then watered with compost tea fertilizer (compost mixed with water) to inoculate the soil with billions of beneficial microorganisms.
4. They put down new grass sod.
5. They watered the new sod with compost tea fertilizer

The La Mirage Casino says that the use of these horticultural techniques established by Dr. Ingham has saved them loads of work and $1.5 Million!!

Note: The reason the grass doesn't die is because the microorganisms detoxify the urine and use the urine for their own metabolism.

We wrote to Dr. Ingham, asking her to further explain why the grass does not die and why the ammonia odor goes away when you use compost and compost tea.

Her response: The grass was not able to survive for several reasons before the compost and compost tea were applied.

1. The soil below the sod was so compacted that the roots could not grow into the material. The material had to be physically broken open to allow air into it.
2. The material was anaerobic and black layers abounded through the material, indicating the anaerobic nature of the material. This means alcohol was being produced, which is very toxic to roots. By adding the correct organisms to the soil, soil structure was re-built by the organisms. Air then could move into the soil.
3. The animal's urine was directly toxic to the grass, since the appropriate life did not exist in the soil to break down these toxins. Addition of the right soil life allows the nitrogen in the urine to be broken down correctly within the soil so it is not toxic to the grass. Animal fecal material can be decomposed as well.
4. The animals became healthier as the ammonia smell was removed.

A TIP FOR YOU
If you get brown spots on your lawn where your pets urinate, this method could work for you. Just fertilize with compost and water with compost tea.

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No Odor Cat Litter
One of the easiest ways to control cat litter box odor is to mix 1/8 to 1/4 cup of white table sugar in your cat litter box. The beneficial micro-organisms naturally occurring in the clay litter use the simple carbohydrates from the sugar and the nitrogen from the urine and metabolize these elements to form their own body proteins. The nitrogen in the urine is then not available to form the bad-smelling ammonia fumes, so therefore there is no odor.

Make sure to use PLAIN clay litter, NOT the chemical odor-control litter. The chemicals kill the beneficial microorganisms.

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Non-Toxic Drain Deodorizer
Does the drain in your kitchen sink ever get smelly? It's possibly the fumes from anaerobic bacteria. An easy non-toxic way to fix the problem is to put a few teaspoons of white table sugar down the drain. The sugar feeds the beneficial aerobic bacteria and the smell goes away. It is effective after about an hour. Just feed your beneficial microbes in your drain a little bit of sugar every week and they'll keep working around the clock to keep your drain odor-free.

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