"Organic Gardening Update" presented Sept 2021

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Roundup is Pulling Their Products

Roundup products containing glyphosate will be removed from US retail shelves in 2023. It will still be available for commercial use, schools and farms, however.

If you have some and want to get rid of it, you can:

1. Bring it to a hazardous waste collection site: https://kingcountyhazwastewa.gov/en/households-disposal 

2. Keep it until next April, when the Hazmobile comes to Vashon again (once a year!)

3. If you are 65+ or have a disability, King County may pick it up at your home for free. Call 206-296-4692.

Notes on Weed & Feed

It is illegal to apply this more than once a year.

It is illegal to apply it near any water body

The 2,4-D herbicide in the product (the Weed in Weed & Feed), is very toxic to humans and animals. See Thurston County’s analysis here: https://www.co.thurston.wa.us/health/ehipm/pdf_terr/terrestrial%20actives/2,4-D%20acid.pdf

And Grow Smart, Grow Safe summary here: https://www.growsmartgrowsafe.org/Products?pesticideTypeId=12 

They are Fall Webworms, not Tent Caterpillars

No need to worry, and certainly no need to spray chemicals on the webs you are seeing in some trees this time of year. They are native fall webworms, not tent caterpillars. They are eating leaves at the end of the year, so are not harmful to the trees, which are soon dropping their leaves anyway.  If you want to do something, just get a long stick and open up the web so the birds and other predators can get to them.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_webworm 

Rodents - What to do? by Diane 

Fall is the time when mice and their big cousins look longingly at our warm, dry houses and outbuildings. “How can I get in there?”, they wonder, and they have long fall nights to check out every tiny hole and see if they can enlarge it enough to make their way in. 

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Then it becomes our problem, and a common problem it is.

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