Pets & Pesticides

How to keep your animal friends safe

PesticideThe Flint water crisis brought up concerns for people—and their pets. Pets can get lead poisoning, too—and fortunately, many of the charities who were distributing clean water to Flint residents were giving them clean water for themselves—and their pets.

As many of you could guess, oftentimes what’s dangerous to humans is also dangerous to animals. Take pesticides, for instance.

Metaldehyde, frequently used to control snails and slugs, is irresistible to many animals, including dogs and cats. It’s also highly toxic and can be fatal. The chemical alternative is iron phosphate—which reportedly has caused iron poisoning in dogs, even though it’s often touted as “dog safe.”

Glyphosate (the chemical in Roundup, typically used by homeowners and even cities like Ann Arbor to destroy weeds in parks) can be toxic to pets—causing vomiting and diarrhea quickly after exposure.

So what can you do about pesky pests?

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a philosophy of pest control which minimizes risks to others. IPM involves four main components:

  1. Cultural controls
  2. Physical/Barrier controls
  3. Biological controls
  4. Responsible use of repellants

Cultural controls mean learning more about the behavior of the pests you’re trying to control. Slugs, for instance, need moisture and hate sunlight. By using drip irrigation that waters only the soil and not the leaves that slugs use for cover, you’ll decrease the chance they’ll want to be on your plants.

Physical/barrier controls involve fencing, hoops, and the like. The idea is simple: If they can’t get to it, they can’t harm it. A Michigan blueberry farmer swears by this simple and inexpensive fence to keep deer from eating his crops. And Sandy Baker, the “Deer Doctor” and author of “How to Deer-Proof Your Garden” speaks about someone who pushed green plastic garden fencing into their bushes, at just the height he wanted the bushes to grow. The deer eat up to the plastic fencing but no further, keeping his bushes trimmed at just the level he wanted!

Biological controls mean allowing nature into your yard to keep ecological balance. Geese, for instance, eat mosquitos. Bats eat mosquitos and many other insects, so you may want to consider building a bat house on your property.

Of course, if you use repellants, you’ll want to be sure animals cannot reach it.  Curiosity of cats and dogs can get them into trouble—and they can get herbicides on their fur by trotting on lawns that were recently treated.

  • Keep your pets from walking on treated lawns until they’re dry, and if it rains within 2 days of application, wait until the area has dried again before stepping on it.
  • Wipe your pets’ paws before they come into your home (then wash that towel in hot water).
  • Keep your pets’ food and water dishes far from cleaning and pesticide products.
  • Please remember wildlife, too—the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reminds us—products sprayed on a windy day can seep into their (and our) water supply.

 

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