Pick up your pet's waste every time is not our line. It is the CDC's. On hookworm they go further and describe the timing. Both pieces of guidance describe a schedule.
Originally published to our Facebook and Instagram on September 23, 2026.
"Pick up your pet's waste every time."
That is not us. That is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in its guidance on roundworm.
On hookworm the CDC goes a step further and describes the timing. Its guidance is to dispose of animal waste quickly to keep eggs from getting into the soil and hatching.
So there are two separate pieces of federal guidance, on two different parasites, and both of them describe a schedule rather than a cleanup. "Every time" and "quickly" are instructions about frequency. Neither one says tidy up when it gets bad.
The reason is in the biology, and it runs the same direction for both organisms.
Roundworm eggs pass in waste in a form that cannot infect anyone. They need two to four weeks in the soil to develop into the infective stage, and once they get there the Companion Animal Parasite Council describes them surviving in the ground for years.
Hookworm works on a shorter clock. Eggs in waste hatch into larvae in the soil, and those larvae can penetrate bare skin. The CDC's word "quickly" is about getting the waste off the ground before that happens.
In both cases the hazard is not the pile on day one. It is what the pile becomes after time in the ground. Remove it inside the window and the problem never starts. Leave it and the ground stays contaminated after the pile is gone.
For a home, a weekly route keeps the yard ahead of both clocks. Twice weekly does it for households with several dogs. The visit itself is simple: gate checked, every pile picked up, waste double bagged and removed or left in your bin, and a notification when the yard is done.
For a managed property the same logic covers more ground. Common areas, walking paths, and dog parks are where the most waste lands in the least time, so they get the highest frequency. An after-service report after every visit puts a date on the fact that the ground was cleared inside the window.
The CDC prescribes the service and the interval. We just run the route.
Retriever Pet Waste Co. runs weekly and twice weekly routes across Columbus, Harris County, and Fort Benning. Homeowners get a quote the same day. Property managers get a free walkthrough and a written per-unit estimate.
Homeowners get a number the same day. Property managers get a free walkthrough and a written per-unit estimate.
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