Metaldehyde – Slug Killer – Hedgehogs

From the Radio 4 Farming Today programme of 20th December, 2018

The Government is banning Metaldehyde in 2020

interview with Charlotte Smith starts at 5.24 minutes.

This is slug killer commonly manufactured in the form of blue pellets.

Colin Myron is a consultant to the group the Metaldehyde Stewardship Group, set up in 2008. He is very sad that this ban is coming into place. But what is more sad is that British agriculture has produced such a chemical pesticide in lieu of the knowledge of how to deal with these pests organically. We have no slug or snail damage on our farm with the use of our HH-4 soil ammendment here in Hertfordshire.

DEFRA have taken the advice of experts that Metaldehyde posses an unacceptable risk to birds and mammals. This pesticide which is used widely by both farmers and gardeners and the RHS will be banned for outdoor use from the spring of 2020. (I wonder where they get this advice from? who are these experts? It is a fact that such chemicals are dangerous to wildlife but do these experts know how to solve the problem without them? That is the question. If they do then they should say so on the Farming Today Programme. And will they be in this new group… the Office for Environmental Protection? We wrote in June 2017, in this archive collection, that slug pellets were the most likely cause of the decrease and subsequent disappearance of Hedgehogs.

We wrote to the powers that be in the RHS, after we had had a meeting with the head gardener and her assistant at Wisley Gardens. They both said they are fed up with spraying for Black Spot and as our product also stops slug, snails and caterpillars they would like to order 2 ton bags of HH-4 and two sets of equipment  that makes it, namely HH-2. But with no avail. We got a letter back saying that they are quite happy with what they have got.

Buy now: Volcanic rock dust

Writing an article

We have been offering to write an article for Garden Magazine for over a year now on this same subject…and still no response from the editors.

Farming Today Programme

We have called this programme many times and they tell us….’if we are doing a programme on soil we will call you.’ But this is not a good enough response. What the British public want to hear is how to solve such problems without using such chemicals that are so dangerous to wildlife. We should not have to wait until they do a programme on soil…….there are hardly any hedgehogs left.

Our view is to be a truly Good Gardener you need to stop using chemicals altogether.            Why use chemicals when you can use HH-4

from the web site Hedgehog Street:

All things considered, to be truely hedgehog-friendly you need to stop using slug pellets or pesticides

Some alternative ideas to stop those slugs eating your prize marrows… 

Register today and start telling your neighbours why their chemicals may be harming the hedgehogs.

..