Herbicides and bike trails

[Ed-Zulu]

10 unemployed oke with slashers...sponsor them food and soft drinks and pay for a day...now that's a winner

[CogitoErgoSum]

cjlieben, where can I buy these herbicides other than BW/hardware stores?

 

Ta

Hi

 

There are numerous other herbicides, both systemic and contact, on the market. Systemic kills the whole weed/plant, contact kills of the leafs.

 

Any farmers market ("kooperasie" no idea what the english is!) like AgriFarm City, Obaro, even chemical companies like Wenkem and Laeveld Agrichem will have.

[BigDL]

There was an letter in die burger a while back about a woman who was concerned about roundup being used to spray the foot paths of the Kirstenbosch botanical gardens. She wanted to walk bear feet there and thought the roundup would be harmful to here feet. A guy responded to the letter. He was at a marketing day of roundup when it started and to show the people how safe round is, the marketing guys of roundup each took a shot of roundup. So it is really not harmful to humans or the ground. But i do think it could be a problem spraying the herbicide. We spray roundup a systemic herbicide and paraquat a contact herbicide. The problem is once you sprayed died one weed type another gets the chance to grow so it is a never ending story, but i will use it in trails if i had the landowners permission. It really safes a lot of time and money and you can even use a pre-grow herbicide to stop seeds from developing and keep the trail cleaner for longer.

I hope they were well paid for doing that. I wouldn't have enough faith in anybody's science to drink weed killer

[johannrissik]

This might just make those who take "shots" of Roundup sh*t the sheets...Kool-Aid ain't what it used to be.

 

http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/MonographVolume112.pdf

[Boerklong]

Why not Paraquat, Basta, Paragone? It "burns" the top growth, but grows back after a couple of weeks.Might be helpful to just spray a route. For a more permanent solution we go Round Up Turbo with Tylanex

[Sniffie]

There is more than enough speculation that links glyphosate with health problems like cancer to make me very careful when handling this, and in fact all other chemicals used in the production of grain crops. It is a fact that glyphosate and most other weed killers are not poisonous to humans, so I have no doubt that if you so wish you could take a swig and still live to a happy old age. When atrazine (one of the first weed killers introduced into the maize industry in the 1970's) was launched, some chemical reps also drank a shot or two to show farmers how "safe" this new product was.

 

The problem with these so called "safe" chemicals is, is that we don't know what the long term effect of continuous low dosage exposure would be. Some times these problems take decades to surface and show itself. Take lead for instance; it was not very long ago that it was deemed "safe enough" to incorporate lead into all sorts of every day products.

 

I use glyphosate on a very regular basis on the farm, and because I am so regularly exposed to it, I take every precaution to protect my workers and myself, by wearing overalls, masks and gloves when handling and mixing chemicals. 

 

We also use glyphosate on our local Two River trail (with permission of the landowners) to control re growth. To clear 40 km of single track on the banks of the Vals- and Vaal rivers 2 to 3 times a year with brush cutters is a massive task. While I would not argue that the use of weed killers on MTB trails might not be in the best interest of the environment, I think the overall impact on a global scale would be so minuscule in comparison with other daily pollutants that it could be excused.

[johannrissik]

Good approach.

 

Monsanto are dogs

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/27/usda-petition-idUSL2N0WT1TQ20150327

 

Dis maar net 'n sappeur wat so fyn kan brag oor die 40km van singletrack hopelik sien ons mekaar eendag daar?

[PhilipV]

Go chat to every single farmer on who's farm the route goes and then get their idea on the best way to clear the trail. they may or may not be open to the use of pesticides. Roundup is the most widely known Glyphosate, the original, and also pretty expensive. Generics include Glyphogan, Kalach, and glypho. All will serve the same purpose. 

 

Hear from the same farmers who their agent is that supplies their chemicals. There may be a plan that your spraying will need to fall in line with, and also, dont just go spraying, there is a bit of knowledge with the handling of herbicides that need to go with it. 

 

Lastly, spraying glyphosates is using a big hammer to sort out a little nail. there could be lot of other damage as well. 

 

Bottom line: be careful