HelpfulGardener.com

Hi everyone. This is my 1st post here.

I'm posting because I put down Roundup in my backyard 2 weeks ago in a 10x10' area for a stone patio. Over the last 2 days I've noticed all the earthworms are coming out of the soil IN THE FRONT YARD 80-100' AWAY on a downslope and writhing and dying. The birds won't eat them.

My house has the only yard in the neighborhood that has dead worms all over the sidewalk and street.

I'm just sick about it. I haven't put anything down that would cause them to die besides Roundup, 100' away.

I swept them all up and they're in a bag.

Attempts to contact Monsanto gets me, "No it dosen't kill earthworms". Scott's the distributor says the same thing and "It's the eqivalent of salt", yea right.

What should I do with the dead worms? Send to Hugh Grant the CEO of Monsanto US? Scott's.

I've contacted a supervisor at Scott's, sent them an email with pics of all the dead worms on my sidewalk and street.

I contacted the EPA. They said there's nothing they can do unless I want to report myself for polluting the enviroment. My neighbors could file a report if they wanted I'm told.

I will post pics of all the worms I've swept up in the next day. I've got to get the word out further that Roundup is TOXIC to the enviroment.

When the amphibians die, that's not a good sign for our survival as well.

2 WEEKS FOR THE ROUNDUP TO GO 100' UNDER MY FOUNDATION TO THE FRONT YARD EFFECTIVELY STERILIZING IT.

ALSO KEEP IN MIND I USED UNDER THE RECOMMENDED AMOUNT.

if its like salt then its bad worms slugs and snails cant handle alot of salt.
I have an organic farm so I cant use roundup or any chemicals on my property unless they are certified organic.
A safe alternative is using vinegar to kill weeds.

because the anhydrous ammonia kills worms. They also dislike the high salt content of popular granulated fertilizers.



The other threat, which is more sinister, is that Roundup kills beneficial fungi in the soil. It kills stuff that is supposed to be there. it offsets the ecological balance that seems to be the perennial enemy of corporate technology. Farmers can use more of it because their crop doesn't seem to suffer. We eat our tofu thinking we are eating healthy, natural, good wholesome food. We trust who feeds us. So what if they don't tell us what our food is sprayed with. Or what the bite full of tofu that came from genetically engineered soybeans that won't die if you spray them with a major weed killer means in our daily intake of pollution and toxins. The fact is, they don't know and we the consumers, are unwitting, involuntary participants in an extremely profitable experiment. An experiment that reminds me of DDT. Or radiation.

I'm sure you have seen this thread:
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1749

It took me years to get my husband to stop using Roundup. It took me finding, and printing out, studies performed on Roundup outside the United States. Those performed IN the States will say it's gone in a few days. Those performed outside the States say it stays in the environment for 30 years. Or forever.

Bad stuff.

I've also read, it's much the same as Agent Orange. Just slightly diluted.

For more information, read the articles here on Roundup:

https://organicconsumers.org/ and search under "roundup" - lots of articles will pop up, very informative.

roundup has been sprayed everywhere and contary to popular belief it doesnt vanish into thin air. what is more worrying are the new imidacloprid chemicals, nowadays are being used as a preventitive
insecicide , note the warning for bees, which has been linked to their slow downfall, it has the same disorientating effect on ants which literally wander off and cant find their way back. it ll be a sad garden when their are no bees and worms left!

what is more worrying are the new imidacloprid chemicals

I couldn't agree more.

Okay, I'll be the odd man out. I used Round Up extensively in my yard last year trying to get a handle on some virulent weeds that sprang up from soil I dug from a hole in my yard and then spread over my yard. (Did you know weed seeds can lay dormant underground virtually forever?)

After hand pulling, using plastic, etc. I threw in the towel and used multiple applications of Round Up. (I use to farm and ranch and was federally licensed to use -cides. I also studied this stuff in college.)

This was in my front yard. My back yard is an oasis for earthworms. You can't move a tray or a pot without uncovering one. Thank you, God! Even with using Round Up extensively last year I never saw an adverse effect in my backyard AND I actually found earthworms in the garden in the corner of my front yard this winter, something I've been working toward for years and haven't seen until this winter.

Possibly there was something in yours that wasn't in mine. Possibly we used different methods of putting it out that made such a huge difference.

I'm sorry you lost your wonderful little creatures. I would have been devastated. Truly, my heart goes out to you.

Thunder was what I would refer to as a one-stop-wonder which is a real shame as it is most obvious he/she cares about the environment. There was a cut and paste out there of this exact post from around the same time frame at a listserve. (sigh)

Thunder, if you're still out there... please take a moment to share those photos you mentioned. I would be very much interested in seeing all those invertebrates "80-100' AWAY on a downslope and writhing and dying" being as how you claim to have applied the RoundUp "UNDER THE RECOMMENDED AMOUNT".

Should you respond Thunder, please know that I've been actively involved controlling exotic earthworms for two years now. Trust me on this one, if what you described above had more than an iota of truth to it and wasn't manufactured to prey on people's emotions... I can assure you there would be quite a few good conservation folk out there resorting to the use of RoundUp out of pure and unadulterated frustration in direct response to the havoc being created in ecosystems invaded by introduced species of earthworms.

imagardener2- you're not the odd man out. Many of us used RoundUp extensively in the past.

I never saw an adverse effect in my backyard

Neither did I for what it's worth although I haven't seen a deformed frog in a few years on my property which is one of those things that makes you go hmmmm. It is most unfortunate but most gardeners are never afforded the luxury of seeing consequences of our actions. The concerns with RoundUp are summed up well enough here-
https://www.pitt.edu/~relyea/Roundup.html

Here are a few interesting reads-
'Penguin droppings help identify pesticide hot spots'
By Felicity Ogilvie
https://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/11/2186867.htm

'Study finds dozens of contaminants in bird eggs across Maine'
https://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080310/NEWS0104/364877771

'EU Activists Seek Ban On Cancer-Linked Chemicals/ Pesticides'
https://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/apr/02/health.cancer

And those are recent articles. I could easily create a post that was 2' long if I added links to what has crossed my desk in the past year. Forget what we know about the surfactant used in RoundUp for a moment. What will we learn about the long term effects of glyphosate on the environment 10 years from now... 20 years from now... 50 years from now? What will we learn about the long term effects of glyphosate on us 10 years from now... 20 years from now... 50 years from now?

I believe we have access to enough scientific research out there to be able to make informed decisions based on best science available. And then we have this forum where concerns can be discussed openly and honestly which enables all of us to make the best possible decisions for ourselves without all the "writhing and dying" sensationalism that polarizes the issues.

edited because ideas should be attacked not people.