Friday, July 15, 2011

Another Reason to Stop Spraying Our Lawns and Trees

At what point will we collectively realize that applying pesticides on our lawns and trees does a lot more harm than good? The latest example is the damage done to thousands of trees sprayed with a supposedly "safer" spray (made by our friends at DuPont):
"A recently approved herbicide called Imprelis, widely used by landscapers because it was thought to be environmentally friendly, has emerged as the leading suspect in the deaths of thousands of Norway spruces, eastern white pines and other trees on lawns and golf courses across the country."
Click here to read the entire article, which appears in today's New York Times.
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 15, 2011 at 8:59 PM

    I received an email warning about this product from my county Master Gardener program director. It quoted several local landscapers who "admitted" using this product on trees that subsequently died. Apparently they had been warned about the product's tree-killing effect but sprayed it on dozens of trees anyway! Now of course they wish they had taken the warning seriously.

    In our condo association, we have banned many products and have changed many practices. One I am most pleased about is discontinuing blanket spraying for bagworms. Now we inspect our trees often for bagworms, and if any are found, the bagworms are handpicked if they can be reached. If they can't be picked off (too high) a deciduous tree, they are left there if only a few (they may defoliate a deciduous tree but won't kill it). If they are on an evergreen, which they can and do kill, they are picked off. If they can't be reached on an evergreen, then that tree only is treated, rather than every tree in the vicinity as had been done before. One reason this may be working for us is that by planting much more diverse plants than are usually used in a condo area, we have attracted many birds, which (I conclude) are feasting on the bagworms (and not being adversely affected by pesticides..

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  2. Chef RobJuly 18, 2011 at 6:45 AM

    Anonymous,

    Thanks for sharing your experiences.

    It would seem logical that the benefits of diverse planting applies to vegetables as well, yet we keep spraying and spraying and spraying our monocultural farms.

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