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For some reason it's been raining tiny bits of styrofoam all day here, my yard/gardens are covered in it. Is this stuff toxic? Am I going to have a real problem on my hands here? This really ticks me off because it looks like c**p too.

Somewhere, in some forum, they were taking styrofoam and tearing it into bits, to add to soil to lighten it up.
I questioned the wisdom of that idea.

My hubby saw your post and asks is it for sure styrofoam? It has rained many strange things, but styrofoam?

I heard of it raining frogs before. Honest they were apparently picked up in a storm and dropped somewhere else.

Yep it's definitely styrofoam, it's very strange. I heard about the frogs thing on a podcast recently as well as fish, spiders, and other various strange things (I would seriously freak out if it rained spiders).

Me too. But, I wouldn't be really happy with any of them.

Sleet and snow are bad enough.

Have you googled it to see if there is some reason? Like something blew up, a styrofoam factory or something, and the bits got caught in the winds?

I did a pretty [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13861&highlight=styrofoam]extensive post on styrofoam[/url]a while back...


We use way too much of this stuff, and it has no place in gardens in my mind. We should simply cease using it...

HG

Do you have a leaf vac or maybe a shop vac? Styrofoam, being lightweight should be practically the first thing to be sucked in as long as you keep the hose up and away from touching the ground. Luckily, there aren't that many insects out yet, so you won't be wreaking havoc among the beneficials.

What CAN have happened? Have you heard anything? Only image that came to mind was construction with styrofoam insulation that some remodel show was featuring the other day (I really think those DYI landscaping and remodel shows are thinly disguised advertisements -- I don't watch them any more except in passing as I'm flipping channels ).

The house next door is being remodeled, I wonder if they were using this styrofoam insulation, I didn't even know there was such a thing.

Sounds like a hideous *and* toxic (fumes) fire hazard. insulation???

Oh. My. God.....

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

Remodeling. Of course...

Blown in insulation? Foamboard? OMG, indeed...


And if you start talking about a bale house people get hinky about fire issues...

HG

At least a bale house will burn "clean" with no toxic fumes. As it is, I think they down-play smoke inhalation -- yes they say how dangerous that is and how it's more damaging than the fire, but I think all the chemicals in that smoke due to "modern" construction as well as furnishing materials have a lot to do with that, as compared to -- shall we say -- less artificial smoke.

Don't feel too bad I been cleaning styrafoam bits out of my farm for almost a year and still there is plenty left. Infact if I were to dig up parts of the earth all I would find is buried non biodegradable bits. Its sort of zen just clearing a it anyway.