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Another product ban

ColinAColinA Posts: 392
in The potting shed
I have just read that from 2020 the use of Metaldehyde as a slug control is to be banned, The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board has estimated that a lack of slug control could cost UK production £100 million a year. I am all for conservation and appreciate that slug pellets can and do cause problems , But its not so long ago the government said the public should be growing more to help the planet now they are creating another headache for us. Its all very well banning something but it would be good if some thought was inputted as to an alternative before taking a tried and tested product off the market. Ironically 21 EU states have just reauthorised its use so yet again the government has just gifted a competitive advantage to farmers abroad due to being able to use crop protection methods banned at home

Posts

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    It's time we stopped killing other species to fulfil our own desires. This ban is years overdue.


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    nutcutlet said:
    It's time we stopped killing other species to fulfil our own desires. This ban is years overdue.
    not even mosquitoes?
    Devon.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Wont affect me. I grow a lot of slug-susceptible veg and haven’t used those nasty things in years. I find that applying nematodes every 2-3 years, encouraging natural predators and good gardening practice works here. We get hardly any slug damage. 
    A family member is a large veg farmer for the supermarkets. He says they’re well prepared and have been adapting their methods and changing to slug resistant varieties. He’s not worried about the ban. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Hostafan1 said:
    nutcutlet said:
    It's time we stopped killing other species to fulfil our own desires. This ban is years overdue.
    not even mosquitoes?
    There’s work well advanced to develop a way of making a large proportion of the malarial mosquitoes infertile in areas where they are a real danger to health. 
    Got to have at least some mosquitoes ... the bats need them  :)

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    Hostafan1 said:
    nutcutlet said:
    It's time we stopped killing other species to fulfil our own desires. This ban is years overdue.
    not even mosquitoes?
    no, that's food for my bats. :) 


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    edited December 2018
    Metladehyde is nasty and it seems even the friendlier ferrous phosphate stuff is noxious to worms so yes, changes in cultivation and growing resistant varieties are a much better way forward depending on the scale of your plot.

    It is very cheap and effective to provide mosquito nets and, as Dove says, there is progress in reducing the malarial kinds.

    If we don't learn to garden with nature there will one day be no nature left and that will include the good guys who help us grow our crops and ornamentals.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    TBH I really wouldn’t want to feed my family on veg grown in soil where metaldehyde has been used  :'(

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Ducks make great pesticides - slugs, insects, weeds.....
    https://www.facebook.com/worldeconomicforum/videos/japanese-farmers-are-using-ducks-instead-of-pesticides/10155296846296479/

    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
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