Pesticides and herbicides

[Dilbertian]

What do you do about garden chemicals?

There's an infestation of blackfly in the garden, and dh wants to put a lawn treatment down. Normally I would just go out after dusk, even the bees have gone to bed, and spray the affected plants, and dh would spread the lawn treatment when rain is likely.

I've also got a narrow, inaccessible alley behind the garage, where I occasionally store stuff until we can take it to the dump. It used to be just dry paving, but next door replaced their fences and a load of their soil toppled down into our alley. I didn't spot it until the weeds got so big they were sticking out. I need to clear that as well. Again, the obvious thing is to use weedkiller before putting membrane down.

But now we've got FattyCat we don't know if that's a good idea.

I suppose I could keep him in for one night, but would that be long enough? What if it doesn't rain for several days?

I have a dog and cat so I avoid all chemicals in the garden. Mainly because the dog licks everything! With a bad black fly infestation I use soapy water in a spray bottle and cut off the worst affected areas, normally the tender tips of plants. I’ve also encouraged other insects into my garden that feed on blackfly.
With weeds, I treat those with a homemade salt and water solution but I don’t use this on weeds in the grass or flowerbeds as the salt would kill the grass or nearby plants.
On my grass I use Lawn Force organic fertiliser which does need to be watered in but it’s child and pet friendly which is useful with a dog and cat that lick their paws.

Try pouring boiling water on the weeds growing in the alley. The heat will kill them and then you can usually pull them out the next day when they're limp.

This tip doesn't work on weeds growing in the lawns, because it will also kill the grass around the weeds, but it's great for weeds growing between paving slabs, through tarmac etc.

have you looked up the specific chemicals in your lawn treatment & their safety profile for cats?

I thought RoundUpReady had good safety profile for mammals (weedkiller)

If you can get hold of Neudorff products, I would use those. Highly efficient and harmless for pets www.neudorff.com/neudorffcom.html

I would absolutely not use Roundup Ready anywhere neat any kind of mammal - Bayer agreed to pay billions because it likely caused cancer in humans www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/24/bayer-109bn-settlement-monsanto-weedkiller-roundup

the rules for Neudorff & RoundUp ready are the same for pets, both only safe after the product has dried