Kitchen sponges are festering germ dens–and sanitizing them doesn’t help

> “Presumably, resistant bacteria survive the sanitation process and rapidly re–colonize the released niches until reaching a similar abundance as before the treatment,” the authors concluded.

So we could sterilise sponges then deliberately re-colonise with 'good' bacteria to fill the niches. Maybe rinse with a bit of live culture yoghurt perhaps? Any bacteriologists on HN that could weigh in?

>The researchers noted that a few of the sponge owners had said that they cleaned them regularly, either by microwaving or using hot-soapy washes. Those sponges didn’t have fewer microbes than the others, but they did tend to have more bacteria related to those that are linked to disease.

Microwaving or "hot soapy washes" sound ineffective to me. I boil my sponges, which seems to work; it certainly kills the smell.