Antibacterial soap on ground

I found my GF washing some old carpet runners in the grass, and was being quite pleased that she has been doing a lot of cleaning in the house today(a very rare occasion!). Then I noticed that she was using palmolive anitbacterial dish soap!!! I didn't say anything, and waited for her to go back inside, and then got a couple of shovel fulls of compost with chick, sheep and cow poop in it and sprinkled across and washed into area with water. Do you guys think it is in major trouble; ie, am I going to have this huge dead spot of grass in an otherwise hard earned beautiful lawn? Or should it be ok? I know she used tons of water washing and rinsing, plus what I added with compost. Thanks for help and advice. Paul.

I'll watch for other opinions but my gut reaction is it'll be fine. esp with the water and compost. I doubt there's enough antibacterial action to kill everything in the dirt.! that reminds me, I left my van floor mats out by the driveway................BTW, good guy for holding your tongue...I'm sure you complimented her on how nice and clean when she got done....

I'd be more concerned about the potassium from any soap than the anti-bacterial properties. It's one of the NPK's but too mich at once can leave a dead spot in a lawn. My buddy dumped a tub of soapy water on my lawn after washing his car here and it left a brown spot for a month or two.

I did not know that. gee. we wash the car on the grass but I guess I'll watch where I dump the bucket...

Maybe it depends on the soap, I don't know.

I never dump the bucket outside. what is left after washing.... i bump down the drain in the house.

My kid always used to dump down the street drains... til i told him all of that goes into the detention pond next to our house -- where the ducks and frogs live.... it's bad enough that the run-off from washing the car goes there.

I used to wash the screens from my windows right in the grass -- though i can't recall what type of cleaner i used -- whether it was anti-bacterial or not... and i've never had any damage done.

Thanks for the replies. I saw that anti bacterial soap, and sorta freaked thinking of it killing all the micro organisms in the ground. 2 years ago, it was nothing but sand and weed. After many hours and days of hard work, it is now about 90% Ky. bluegrass. I just took a huge section out of the back corner yard, and put in the front yard around a short wall I had built. It never missed a beat, and required cutting after only a week. Something I'm quite proud of, as we always had the greenest, thickest lawn when I was growing up.

The one thing I found with soapy water, is that it makes my hard clay ground more soluble.I would be interested to hear of the final outcome, as to pros, and cons.Thanks, Mike

Hose it down real good with water from your spigot until it stops foaming. This is not going to be an issue- promise. I've had kids do this before. Don't worry. We've had Softsoap anti bacterial out there and my kids used the entire refill bottle to wash one dog. It was much harsher on the dog than it was on the lawn.

Eq- you and I have learned that in the back yard, a bottle of soap with kids should be a 'controlled substance!!"

LOL! That is to funny. I feel for the dog, but must be a good one to put up with that punishment. (Dog: Gee, I just got a good coating of dirt on!) mqiq77, my soil here is heavily amended sand, so I'm hoping most of it got flushed through, what with gf rinsing rugs, and my follow up dousing. If it goes bad, I will appraise everyone.

Tee he, a controlled substance! You hit that on the head.

It wasn't a bottle of soap. It was more like a whole gallon refill jug from Sam's Club. They told me they needed alot since he is a big dog. When I walked out there I had to do a double take. It looked for a second or so as if it there had been a blizzard in one area of the yard. The soap bubbles were blanketing the ground around the kids and the dog. They had started washing him with Dawn dishwashing detergent and one of the little rocket scientists must have figured it wasn't a good idea to use dish soap and ran in to get something "better" which ended up being the whole refill bottle for our pump dispensers to wash our hands. Yes, the dog is good natured.

Boy!!, does that bring back memories!!Its been 45 Yrs., ago, but my 3Yr. old, and my best friend's 4 Yr. old, took a Gal. jug of comericial strength butal( you may know as "The purple stuff"), and used all of it to wash our blond cocker spaniel, and that dog's hair changed to a platinum blond for a long time, and the poor things skin was sooo sinsative, for about a week. Talk about a rinse!!!Mike

A platinum blond coccker! That's pretty funny. You should have entered it in some sort of a doggie beauty contest.

Is that something like "grannies" lye soap on the Beverly Hillbillies. Sorry, just a few years shy of the 45 years. Today, a blonde cocker would be all the rage, especially in Hollywood!

This poor thing lost most most of the hair within a two week period, but was replaced by a fuzzy natural taffy looking under coat.Think the worst of platinum looking, kind of like "angle hair", believe me it wasn't becomming.The soap in question would clean the dirtest of moters, cut greese on any peice of equipment, would clean anything, but animals.The kids suffered burned hands, and I took ALL the blame for having it where kids could get it.Memories!!!Mike

Ooh, I can relate to the dog washing stories. Thankfully my retriever was very forgiving.

So, vadap, why do you have antibacterial soap around to begin with? Most of these use triclosan as the "active" ingredient. It's a chlorophenol pesticide, similar in properties to Agent Orange. It also mixes with the chlorine in tap water to release choroform gas. We've had several incidences in the news of folks passing out from while doing dishes by hand due to the high chloramine levels in the tap water and the triclosan in the dishsoap. Your lawn is in the process of phytoremediation to save you.

http://www.townsendletter.com/May2006/healthrisk0506.htm

I stopped buying it after our pediatrician told us not to use it. I had a heck of a time finding refills that weren't antibacterial back when he told us to ditch it. Now it's a lot easier to find refills for pump dispensers that aren't anti-bacterial. Supply and demand. Word got out thanks to people like garden_mermaid.

If you have someone with low imunity, that's what is suggested. Use antibacterial yourself and let the person with low immunity use the regular soap. No other reason seem to make much sense.

GM, that's interesting. I had never heard that before. I'm of the school of thought that most of the things we ingest from stores and restraunts is absolutely terrible for us(6 ft and 200 lb 14 year olds?), and having worked on tankers, I've been around enough toxic fumes to give me every kind of cancer(benzene ain't the only one). We used to wash our hands with epoxy thinner or diesel fuel to get paint off. My aunt used to make lye soap, and I wish she still did, but old age and poor health ended that.

Getting off topic but what the heck... I agree, I avoid triclosan soap. I refill hand soap with el cheapo bubble bath by the quart. And I kind of think I'll quit buying any commercial food developed in the last 25 years, with all the high tech new bad stuff like high fruxtose cornsyrup and trNA Ft etc...

So vadap, how is the grass so far?

I never thought of using bubble bath as a hand soap. Thank you sallyg!

No problems, still looking green! :-) Maybe even get a haircut this weekend.