Sluggo Snail & Slug Control For Organic Gardening
Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2012 10:33 pm
I was thinking about purchasing some of this but then I found this article
Does anybody have any more information and what do you think is it safe?
Iron phosphate is non-toxic to both humans and dogs, as well as other pets and wildlife. Studies also show that it is equally non-toxic to slugs and snails, because it does not release its load of poisonous elemental iron very easily. If this is the case, why do other studies show that it is a very effective product that rivals the metaldehyde baits? How can these baits made of nothing but iron phosphate and wheat gluten be as effective as they are shown to be when other studies show that snails can live indefinitely on a diet of iron phosphate?
Enter a man-made chemical called EDTA, a chelating agent that causes the iron phosphate to release its elemental iron easily in the digestive systems of not only slugs and snails but of pretty much anything that eats it. EDTA or the similar EDDS are the only reason these baits are effective, yet interestingly the label only reads Active Ingredient: Iron Phosphate - 1%, Inert Ingredients - 99%. No mention is made of the presence of another chemical that can turn harmless iron phosphate into a deadly poison. Apparently EDTA was slipped through the cracks in our regulatory system as an "inert" ingredient, and inert ingredients do not have to be listed on the label. Since iron phosphate is harmless, and EDTA is the ingredient that makes it effective, not to mention dangerous, something is really wrong here.
Missing from most of the literature about iron phosphate slug baits is their mode of action - the "how" of what they do. Some trying to write about them even say that the mode of action is not well understood. Once you know that EDTA is present in the bait, the mode of action becomes clear pretty quickly - iron poisoning. In Australia, these baits are labeled as containing EDTA. An article about them contains the following mode of action description:
"Iron chelates can be incorporated into bait, which is palatable to the mollusc and it appears that at an appropriate location in the mollusc's gut the iron is released as Fe3+, and is toxic causing death if the concentration is sufficiently high. A number of chelates are efficacious, particularly those belonging to the group of compounds referred to as complexones, but to date the iron EDTA complex formed by the reaction of ferric EDTA with hydroxide ions is the most effective on the basis of the total iron concentration. A number of iron complexones have been shown to be effective."
A review of these products by the Swiss organic certification organization (FiBL) discovered the EDTA content and stated that these products were likely no safer than the metaldehyde baits, that EDTA itself was significantly more poisonous than metaldehyde, and even said they weren't even sure that it wasn't the EDTA alone that was killing slugs and snails. When I started posting the link to that study and warning people about these baits, the report was quickly removed from the website that hosted it. It is referenced in the Ohio State study, though. A graphic comparing the toxicity of EDTA and metaldehyde was also taken down.
The actual effect on slugs and snails does seem to be iron poisoning from what I can find. The referenced pet poisonings also seem to be the result of iron poisoning, from iron freed up from the iron phosphate by EDTA.
The above is only highlighted info
For the full article use the link below
https://www.hostalibrary.org/firstlook/R ... sphate.htm
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Does anybody have any more information and what do you think is it safe?
Iron phosphate is non-toxic to both humans and dogs, as well as other pets and wildlife. Studies also show that it is equally non-toxic to slugs and snails, because it does not release its load of poisonous elemental iron very easily. If this is the case, why do other studies show that it is a very effective product that rivals the metaldehyde baits? How can these baits made of nothing but iron phosphate and wheat gluten be as effective as they are shown to be when other studies show that snails can live indefinitely on a diet of iron phosphate?
Enter a man-made chemical called EDTA, a chelating agent that causes the iron phosphate to release its elemental iron easily in the digestive systems of not only slugs and snails but of pretty much anything that eats it. EDTA or the similar EDDS are the only reason these baits are effective, yet interestingly the label only reads Active Ingredient: Iron Phosphate - 1%, Inert Ingredients - 99%. No mention is made of the presence of another chemical that can turn harmless iron phosphate into a deadly poison. Apparently EDTA was slipped through the cracks in our regulatory system as an "inert" ingredient, and inert ingredients do not have to be listed on the label. Since iron phosphate is harmless, and EDTA is the ingredient that makes it effective, not to mention dangerous, something is really wrong here.
Missing from most of the literature about iron phosphate slug baits is their mode of action - the "how" of what they do. Some trying to write about them even say that the mode of action is not well understood. Once you know that EDTA is present in the bait, the mode of action becomes clear pretty quickly - iron poisoning. In Australia, these baits are labeled as containing EDTA. An article about them contains the following mode of action description:
"Iron chelates can be incorporated into bait, which is palatable to the mollusc and it appears that at an appropriate location in the mollusc's gut the iron is released as Fe3+, and is toxic causing death if the concentration is sufficiently high. A number of chelates are efficacious, particularly those belonging to the group of compounds referred to as complexones, but to date the iron EDTA complex formed by the reaction of ferric EDTA with hydroxide ions is the most effective on the basis of the total iron concentration. A number of iron complexones have been shown to be effective."
A review of these products by the Swiss organic certification organization (FiBL) discovered the EDTA content and stated that these products were likely no safer than the metaldehyde baits, that EDTA itself was significantly more poisonous than metaldehyde, and even said they weren't even sure that it wasn't the EDTA alone that was killing slugs and snails. When I started posting the link to that study and warning people about these baits, the report was quickly removed from the website that hosted it. It is referenced in the Ohio State study, though. A graphic comparing the toxicity of EDTA and metaldehyde was also taken down.
The actual effect on slugs and snails does seem to be iron poisoning from what I can find. The referenced pet poisonings also seem to be the result of iron poisoning, from iron freed up from the iron phosphate by EDTA.
The above is only highlighted info
For the full article use the link below
https://www.hostalibrary.org/firstlook/R ... sphate.htm
-
(as long as there 's no beer wasted)