Mark805
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Joined: Sun Sep 10, 2017 2:32 pm

Re: Arrggh! Neighbor spraying Sevin without notice!

There are safer chemicals. Everyone needs to just chill and stop believing EVERYTHING they read that someone posts online. I read someone's post saying the world is flat and that nazi Germany was collaborating with aliens. If humans were as fragile as everyone seems to suspect we are then our species would have gone extinct long ago.

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Gary350
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Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

My parents, grandparents, & relatives all used Sevin in their garden 60 yrs so I assumed it was safe to use because no one ever got sick or got cancer from it. When I started gardening 45 yrs ago I used Sevin too for a while there was no internet back then it was not easy to learn how dangerous this stuff is. I bought some Sevin dust about 8 years ago I used some in a small tree full of bag worms but I did not use very much, worms did not die. I put Sevin on 1 squash plant then I decided that was a mistake. I have the Sevin dust sealed up inside a glass jars with a lid I have been keeping it in the garage for 8 years. I am afraid to use it and afraid to throw it away.

40 years ago I put lots of other peoples tree leaves in my garden but not anymore. I don't trust other peoples leaves or grass I don't want that any where near my garden.

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rainbowgardener
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Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

While some of this stuff can be/ is toxic to humans, for many of them the danger is mostly through repeated chronic exposure as in agricultural workers. That would be enough for me to not want it around, because I hate to think of people dying in order to harvest my food. But the main danger is to the environment and the eco-system. Most of the chemicals people use in their yard are toxic to honey bees (AND native bees). Have you noticed the decline in bees? Most of them are toxic to aquatic organisms once they leach into the waterways. Many of them are toxic to birds. The ones that aren't are still harmful to birds because they destroy the plant and insect life upon which the birds depend. Etc.

There are better ways to garden AND farm. In fact farmers are using more and more herbicides and pesticides for less and less benefit. "It is estimated that more of the US food supply (37%) is lost to pests now than in the 1940's (31%) Total crop losses from insects alone have nearly doubled in that time (7% to 13%)." From Pesticides: A Toxic Time Bomb in Our Midst
By Marvin J. Levine The 1940's is when modern pesticides were developed, many as a result of development of chemical warfare in WWII. That is despite the fact that we are now putting one BILLION pounds of pesticides a year on our crops. The problem is that insects and weeds rapidly develop resistance to pesticides and herbicides. And ironically, the more the pesticides are used (more frequently, over greater areas), the more rapidly the resistance develops. So we are addictively using more and more and using them in combination.

Herbivorous insects cannot develop resistance to predatory insects and birds and lizards and other creatures that eat them. Nature's way always works better in the long run.



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