Back in December last year, DEFRA – Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, announced a blanket ban on all pest control products that contain the chemical Metaldehyde.
Metaldehyde is the principle chemical in Slug and Snail killer products especially the little blue pellet products. Anyone who grows leaf vegetables like lettuce and cabbage knows the horrors that the slimy little gastropods can wreak on your prized veg and the little blue pellets were the go to product to rid the garden of the messy little mucus producers.
While they were great for ridding you of the slugs and snails, they did not harm the plants. Trouble is they did harm other wildlife in the garden, Birds were drawn to the pellets probably due to their similarities to popular bird food suet pellets in size and shape, they also proved to be attractive to dogs.
The ban on the sale of these products came into force on the 1st of July with the blanket ban on outdoor use coming into force in Spring 2020.
With Metaldehyde pellets now legally unavailable to buy from reputable retailers and garden centers, you may now be wondering how to get rid of slugs and snails from your lettuces and so forth. After all, the big attraction of the pellets is they are very much a use and forget product and did not require much in the way of monitoring or re application.
There is an alternative little blue pellet that does not contain Metaldehyde and is also much less a problem for pets and birds
Doff Super Slug Killer does not contain Metaldehyde, instead its principle ingredient is Hydrated Ferric Phosphate. It works in exactly the same way as the other pellet product just without the nasty chemical side effects.
As more information is uncovered over the lasting impact these types of products have had on the environment, you will find more and more of these types of pest control items will become more and more restricted and will force companies into developing products that make less of an impact on both the environment and wildlife we all depend on.