# Do germs poop? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 24, 2008, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-germs-poop/454088 "2008-06-24T17:42:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-germs-poop/454088/1 "2008-06-24T17:42:42Z")
Less childishly put, do bacteria ever excrete in recognizable lumps or pellets? I’d settle for waste-filled vacuoles that migrate to the outer membrane and are expelled. Just curiosity on my part. I’d be willing to google for it, but don’t know any keywords that wouldn’t, well, is there a word for a google-splosion of unrelated information? ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-germs-poop/454088/2 "2008-06-24T18:07:10Z")
You’ve heard of the goose that laid the golden egg, right? Bacteria can do [one better](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4133668.ece). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-germs-poop/454088/3 "2008-06-24T18:12:46Z")
To answer the OP, bacteria have to use the resource of chemical bonds to generate useful energy, so of course they produce stuff they can’t use. That’s “waste”. Look at the section on “Metabolism” here: > **[Bacteria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteria)** > > See § Phyla > Bacteria (/bækˈtɪəriə/ ⓘ; SG: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among the first life forms to appear on Earth, and are present in most of its habitats. Bacteria inhabit soil, water, acidic hot springs, radioactive waste, and the deep biosphere of Earth's crust. Bacteria play a vital role in many stages ... ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-germs-poop/454088/4 "2008-06-24T18:18:31Z")
[Obligatory](http://www.amazon.com/Everyone-Poops-My-Body-Science/dp/0916291456/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214331454&sr=8-1) ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-germs-poop/454088/5 "2008-06-24T18:31:47Z")
Well, I’ve read through the articles and ordered the book. (The SDMB really should get click-through fees. This isn’t the first time I’ve ordered a book recommended by link, here.) I still don’t see the poop. The articles talk about metabolism/excretion on a chemical level. For all I know, the atoms are disbursed to the surrounding enviornment individually through membrane pores. You can’t snap a picture of that. Maybe we need to go further up the chain of life to get true poop. Philosophically speaking. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-germs-poop/454088/6 "2008-06-24T20:26:35Z")
When you fart, aren’t you really farting the farts of your intestinal flora and fauna? ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-germs-poop/454088/7 "2008-06-24T20:37:29Z")
[QUOTE=Washoe] You’ve heard of the goose that laid the golden egg, right? Bacteria can do [one better](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4133668.ece). [/QUOTE] Coolest thing ever. It would be fun to replace the Saudis with scum eating bacteria. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-germs-poop/454088/8 "2008-06-24T23:32:44Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia] When you fart, aren’t you really farting the farts of your intestinal flora and fauna? [/QUOTE] Yes. Yes, we are. And the greater the percentage of your diet that they can absorb and you can’t, the greater the amount of gas they can produce. At least I’d like to think of them as bug-farts. I’m not sure that the transport of a single carbon dioxide or methane molecule across a membrane gate actually counts as a fart, morally speaking. I just can’t think of such a tiny process as breaking any wind. According to [the wiki article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fart), ‘fart’ is one of the oldest words in the English language. I don’t know how they decided that, but it consoles me somewhat. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Dave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/46a35a/32.png) [@Great\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Dave)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2008, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-germs-poop/454088/9 "2008-06-24T23:45:14Z")
Well, yeast piss alcohol and fart the bubbles. As to the OP, it depends what you mean by germs? Prokaryotes? Eukaryotes? Protists? IIRC, in a single-celled organism with organelles, which it seems you are thinking of, waste would go into vacuoles, which would be transported to the cellular membrane. The vacuole would open a hole in the membrane and expell the junk, but the entire vacuole would not be ejected. There wouldalso be osmotic factors coming into play. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-germs-poop/454088/10 "2008-06-25T00:25:51Z")
I’m basically looking for the smallest and/or simplest organism that can be said to visibly excrete. Something that you could see under a regular microscope. Pictures would be cool. And something solid left behind would be more to the point than a vacuole releasing waste fluids or gases. Actually, the answer may be in two parts, with one sort of organism(s) sporting the most basic macro-excretion and another (others) with the most basic solid macro-excretion. ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-germs-poop/454088/11 "2008-06-25T01:36:35Z")
**Do germs poop?** Of course. In my microscope I’ve often seen those really cute little rolls of toilet paper. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2008, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-germs-poop/454088/12 "2008-06-25T03:50:41Z")
[QUOTE=Washoe] You’ve heard of the goose that laid the golden egg, right? Bacteria can do [one better](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4133668.ece). [/QUOTE] That’s awesome. Well, until they escape the lab and turn everything on the planet into flammable germ poop, but right up to that point that’s awesome.