Excellent advice - particularly in a care home where some of the residents may well have health conditions which make them more vulnerable to chemicals contained in such pesticides.
A very strong point about novel man-made compounds used in insecticides and herbicides. We regularly walk a section of a cycle path created from a disused railway line which is alive with wildlife, a narrow corridor between arable fields, green deserts with no signs of life, no butterflies, insects, wild flowers, hares, and “… no birds sing” - the cereal crops thrive, all else is dead. If the wind happens to be in the wrong direction when the arable fields are sprayed, we presume the drift of insecticide must affect the insect life along the cycle path and thus the warblers for which a section of the path is famous, as well as other insect eating birds. We do not know if traces of insecticide linger in the cereal crop but it wouldn’t be altogether surprising if it does.
Hopefully not straying too far from the original topic. A friend gave me a lovely potted Rosemary plant as a gift but said the garden centre staff told her not to eat it because the plant had been treated with a pesticide. Does anyone know if this applies to the life of the plant or just a few months or year?
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With the rosemary and without the bottle label I would allow a month with the plant out in the rain or longer with it indoors perhaps until the leaves have been naturally replaced.
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In an extreme case, it could be several months before the plant is safe. Modern agricultural seed treatment involves coating the seed with an insecticide which lingers in the plant sufficient to kill aphids for 100 days. It takes only a few such seeds to kill a sparrow. Though one would hope a herb like rosemary wasn’t being given this level of treatment.
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I’m going to play safe and wait until late summer before I use the rosemary. The plant is outdoors and seems very healthy. Thanks for all the advice.
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its been a long time but the guy came and mowed and put it down again but he used another ant killer this time
acording to the website although it claims to be safe for pets reviews say that they arnt comfortable with having there pets near it just to be safe anyway. one of the support workers brings her dog cause she has no choice but to to have her here at the care home when shes on. but the pesticide has already been put down. of course they wouldnt put pesticide down if it could be harmful to people its the insects and ants or ants to be more specific that they want to poison and kill so dont get me started on the bees exspecialy who will be calateral damage
its raining now so I dont know if that will do anything
According to the Wikipedia article it’s “safe” for humans and dogs, but not for cats. Compared to organophosphates and organochlorides (but permethrin is technically an organochloride) it is less toxic to vertebrates and less persistent in the environment. It’s safe for humans and dogs not because it’s not toxic per se, but because it gets metabolised quickly by the liver before it can do severe harm.
The Wikipedia article on the organic agriculture approved compound (Pyrethin) is more negative that the one on permethrin, but I suspect that is to the vagaries of editing by multiple independent contributors, rather than a reflection of reality; permethrin is more persistent in the environment.
To satisfy my curiosity I looked up the chemical (as opposed to brand or generic) names. It seems to be the ester of 3-phenoxybenzyl alcohol and 3-(2,2-dichlorovinyl)-2,2-dimethylcyclopropanecarboxylic acid, i.e. 3-phenoxybenzyl 3-(2,2-dichlorovinyl)-2,2-dimethylcyclopropanecarboxylate ester.
thanks. I havnt told her weather it might be toxic or not as I dont habe enough infomation to be certain of if it is or not but obviously acording to wiki pedia there on the no side. but even though I havnt said anything my support worker is worried about her dog going near it cause her dog went near it and this is what I thought might happen. she said the dog hasnt touched it yet and is keeping an eye on her dog going near it. sorry for the delay in replying to your message. police are cracking down on the riot issue thwt has been going on around the uk and so they are takimg steps in my area and so I have been keeping an eye on how the news is progressing in relation to that in case something does come up.
I thought that the rain could potientialy get rid of it but it didnt rain long enough to get rid of the powder
I have been out for the morning and afternoon so I dont know what you two and talking about. what are you two talking about?
There was a “typo” when I wrote out the long form chemical name for permethrin.
ok. thanks. and thanks for the infomation you provided yesterday by the way.
any idea how i can get rid of it since it is poisonous to insects? if I dont get rid of the stuff on the ground on the grass in the garden it will continue poisoning the ants and other invertebretes.
the longer it gets left on the ground the more invertebretes in the garden that will be poisoned so the sooner I can do something about the insecticide in the form of powder on the grass better
I need to deal with whats happening in the present first before thinking about what to do next for future ocurances. so talking to them about not putting it down( in the future ) isnt going to deal with the poison on the ground that is poisoning (in vertebretes) in the moment- at present. if anyone has any suggestions on how to get rid of the powder in the present please let me know.
would useing the hose to get rid of it this afternoon work?
any opinions on weather I should and weather this would work if I try it this afternoon