Bugs, cornstarch replace pesticides today

[Guest guest]

Bugs, cornstarch replace pesticides today

 

_http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/622246_

(http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/622246)

Apr 22, 2009 04:30 AM

Catherine Porter Environment Reporter

 

 

Hardware and garden stores removing all chemical, cosmetic weed killers

from shelves across province

 

 

Microscopic bugs, cornstarch and fungus. That*s your new arsenal for

grooming the perfect lawn. The province*s ban on all cosmetic pesticides locks

into place today, banishing all the old chemical stalwarts such as Killex,

Weedex and Grubout.

 

 

Hardware and garden stores across the province are removing the last

vestiges of 245 banned products, containing some 80 outlawed chemicals, and

stocking their shelves with natural alternatives and *biopesticides,* bugs that

kill weeds and pests.

 

 

Many lawncare companies are scrambling to respond to the legislation*s

fine print, which came out only recently.

 

 

**Things are pretty insane. We were thinking about getting another

telephone line to handle all the calls,** said Lorelei Hepburn, owner of The

Environmental Factor, an organic lawncare company that brought two new

top-selling organic pesticides to the market: a liquid corn gluten that keeps

weed

seeds from germinating, and the Nemaglobe, a cornstarch ball full of

nematodes, microscopic worms that attack the hated white grub.

 

 

Lawn-care companies faced with losing their old arsenal of weed and bug

killers have been calling Hepburn for advice, she said, and sales are up

almost 600 per cent since last year.

 

 

**I thought there was supposed to be a recession,** Hepburn said from her

warehouse in Oshawa. **This is the best year we've ever had.**

 

 

Heralded by environmentalists as the most progressive legislation in North

America, the pesticide ban was announced by Environment Minister John

Gerretsen on Earth Day last year, as part of a program to lessen Ontario

residents' exposure to toxic chemicals, many of them linked to cancer,

neurological problems and birth defects.

 

 

Starting today, Ontario stores may not sell – and residents may not use

for cosmetic purposes – any herbicide or insecticide containing one of the 80

banned chemicals. These include rotenone and 2,4-D, the most common weed

killer in Canada.

 

 

Any leftovers in basements or garages will need to be taken to a hazardous

waste depot for disposal.

 

 

There are exceptions. The legislation lists 99 chemical pesticides that

may be used for health and safety reasons, for example to kill termites,

mosquitoes potentially carrying the West Nile virus, and poisonous plants like

poison ivy. Indoor insecticides are also permitted.

 

 

Exempt from the ban are farmers, foresters and speciality turf and sports

fields. Golf courses are also exempt, but are expected to wean themselves

from the chemicals and release annual reports detailing what products were

used and where. The ban replaces 35 municipal bans across the province,

including a Toronto bylaw that came into full force two years ago.

 

 

While environmentalists were initially worried about the loss of these

local laws, they now laud the provincial ban as it goes beyond prohibiting use

and actually bans the sale of these chemicals – something municipal

governments didn't have the power to do.

 

 

**This is a huge, huge step, not just for Canada but for all North

America,** said Gideon Forman, executive director for the Canadian Association

of

Physicians for the Environment.

 

 

**It*s a very good precedent for places like New York state and

California,** Forman said.

 

 

U.S.-based chemical manufacturer Dow AgroScience is suing the federal

government for a similar ban introduced three years ago in Quebec.

 

(http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm)