Metaldehyde Slug Pellet Ban Overturned

I see slug pellets containing metaldehyde are staying on the market. I mentioned a few weeks ago they were to be off the retail shelves by early next year. The ban was overturned in the high court after a challenge from Chiltern Farm Chemicals who manufacture the product. 

As expected social media went into meltdown with a call to overturn the ruling, which probably won’t happen anytime soon. What isn’t really mentioned is that slug pellets are used in industrial agriculture in huge amounts and until the mono crop production of farming shifts the demand will be there and laws won’t change. 

The industry is trying to lower the amount of metaldehyde being used by reducing the size of the pellets and have cut down the dose rate from 210g/ha to 60g/ha, so they are taking a bit of action. The products also have something called Guardsman added which makes the pellets unpalatable to birds and mammals. I haven’t been able to find any research to see how precise this is and if mammals are harmed indirectly by eating poisoned slugs so can’t really comment about it’s effectiveness at the moment.

You might be aware of vegetables on the supermarket shelves being organic but there’s never any mention about slug deterrents being used. The drinking water Inspectorate is also ensuring metaldehyde doesn’t reach drinking water in agricultural use but isn’t monitored in the private garden. 

Farming is why the ruling has been overturned. Protests from home gardeners on social media doesn’t really have any clout at the moment, but that could change. 

We might seem powerless to alter what the huge industrial agricultural businesses are doing but we can make a change in our own gardens. If the use of metaldehyde slug pellets is an issue for you and you really don’t want to use them, use one of the many alternatives on the market, either shop bought or home-made. 

We’ve come a long way since gardeners such as Percy Thrower pushed a multitude of endorsed ICI chemical products on us to attack everything in the garden.  We now see our plots are a more balanced ecosystem where everything has a purpose. 

There isn’t a “good or bad” or “friend or foe” in the garden, it’s more to do with how we keep the garden healthy to overcome issues as and when they arise. 

By starting our own fruitful, strong, and diverse self-maintaining garden, which is more cost effective to run than a garden where chemicals are needed we might just quietly influence the change from monoculture as it becomes more expensive to be productive.

Ha Ha

Talking of bans and restrictions I can’t help but notice that right of ways and access to the countryside seems to be on the decline. Once open areas of our countryside are becoming closed off, even grassland on the perimeter of beaches are no go areas. Fences are going up and even in some extreme cases non-drying bitumen paint is put on gates. I know of one area near Neds Point where an access path to the beach, used for over a hundred years now has a six foot wall blocking access with cemented in broken glass along the top to deter (or injure) any ramblers. The large field adjoining it has also been dug up and furrowed to make access near impossible so it’s not about keeping livestock in, it’s about keeping people out. I appreciate the claim culture can install fear into landowners to block access but sometimes you think a small sign with ‘Persons walking do so at their own risk’ would suffice. 

There are ways to make areas secure (for livestock) without fences and visible signs of restrictions. I lived in a large house many moons ago where the garden had a Ha-Ha around the garden. Think of it as a moat but with no water in it and one side was at 45 degrees and grass. It’s a landscape design element that creates a vertical barrier while preserving an uninterrupted view of the landscape beyond. 

The name "ha-ha" is thought to have stemmed from the exclamations of surprise by those coming across them, as the walls were intentionally designed to be invisible, which is where the rub lies. Health and safety probably wouldn’t allow them now.

Before mechanical lawn mowers, a common way to keep large areas of grassland trimmed was to allow livestock, usually sheep, to graze the grass. A ha-ha prevented grazing animals on large estates from gaining access to the lawn and gardens adjoining the house, giving a continuous vista to create the impression that the garden and landscape were one and undivided. At least with a Ha-ha you would be given the illusion of access and freedom to roam without all of the barriers going up in the countryside.


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