Careful You Don?t Kill The Dog (Weedol)

Member Name: kenjohn

Product:	Weedol
Date:	19/04/04 (3196 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very effective weedkiller

Disadvantages: Highly dangerous and extremely toxic

~ ~ It?s that time of the year again. Spring has most definitely sprung, and that means that the garden is beginning to sprout vigorously once again after its winter hibernation. The rose bushes are growing new buds, the trees and shrubs are starting to show new leaves, and the crocuses and daffodils are in full bloom. (Or have even already bloomed)
It?s great to see the garden beginning to blossom once again. But it also has its drawbacks. The grass on the lawn is already long enough to give cover to a raiding Apache war party, and along with all the blooming flowers and shrubbery, the dreaded weeds have also reared their ugly wee heads.

~ ~ The grass is easy enough to keep in check. (Well, with a bit of effort with the lawnmower) But the weeds are another story altogether, and if not dealt with properly, have a tendency to just hide for a little while before coming back even thicker than before.
There are only two choices for dealing with them effectively. Either you get down on your hands and knees and dig them out by the roots with a garden fork, or you purchase an effective weedkiller. There?s no doubt the garden fork method is effective, but for the mad cabbie it?s just a little too much like hard work. So instead I use the product I?m going to write about here. ?Weedol? fast acting weedkiller.

~ ~ Weedol comes in powder form, and you mix it with water before use.
The pack that we are currently using comes with 5 x 57 gram sachets. You mix a single sachet in a gallon (4.5 litres) of water, wait until it has fully dissolved, and then off you go with your watering can. (Or spray dispenser) It?s better to use slightly warm water, by the way, as this dissolves the granules a bit more quickly.
Weedol will effectively kill most garden weeds within a few days. I use it in the area around my rose bushes and shrubs, and around the base o
f my trees. Another place it is very useful is on the patio. We have stone slabs laid, and over the years we?ve had them down, the damned weeds have a habit of popping up on a regular basis in the gaps between the slabs. Weedol is very effective for solving this problem, as it not only kills the weeds themselves, but also kills of any dormant seeds, so they don?t get the chance to sprout.
If you?re having a problem with your lawn, you can also use it to kill off any old grass before you reseed the area.
A gallon of Weedol will treat an area of approximately 17 sq. metres. (20 sq. yards)

~ ~ Now for the bad bit. Weedol is a deadly poison. It comprises of two truly deadly poisons, Diquat & Paraquat, both of which are not only deadly dangerous for all types of plants, but which will kill off a animal or human being just as effectively.
Some of you might remember a few years back, when the American and Mexican governments sprayed paraquat on illegal marijuana fields. Off course, the growers quickly salvaged what they could of the crops, and this led to many end users of the affected dope suffering various degrees of health problems, from severe breathing disorders, right down to bad headaches, vomiting and nosebleeds. Luckily nobody died. (Or at least, not for the official record!)
And I still have a very unhappy memory of an old schoolmate who committed suicide by drinking a paraquat mixture back in the 1960?s. (It wasn?t a pleasant death. He lingered for about a week)

~ ~ What this means is that you should exercise EXTREME caution when using Weedol weedkiller. Don?t handle this stuff at all with your bare hands. Always wear a good strong pair of garden gloves. If it does somehow manage to make contact with your skin, then wash it off immediately. Make sure to always dispose of the used sachets safely,
and don?t leave them lying around the garden for a dog, cat, or (God forbid) a child to find and decide to play with. (I always burn mine after use) I also keep the packet itself under lock and key in my workshop.
The instructions state that any treated area is safe after only about ten minutes, (or once the liquid has dried into the earth) but I always make sure I don?t let our dog near the area I?ve treated for at least a couple of days after I?ve used it. (Better safe than sorry) So take care if you have pets of any description, especially any sort of pet (rabbit, tortoise, guinea pig, etc) that might happen to eat any vegetation from a treated area.

~ ~ Weedol is made by a company called Scotts, who are based in Godalming in Surrey, and it?s available in packs of 5, 10, and 16 sachets at most garden centres or hardware stores. You can also buy it in a ready mixed 1 litre spray dispenser. I paid ?9.99 for the 5 sachet pack in our local Homebase store.
A very effective way to get rid of all those pesky weeds, but marked down a star because it?s so damned toxic and dangerous.

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© KenJ April 2004

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