Take a walk down Summerfield, and most other streets in the Pine Ridge area, and you’ll find the complete loss of a substantial percentage of lawns, and substantial damage to most (other than those that were sprayed with the appropriate lawn care products). The fantasy that lawns can look just as healthy is just not being reflected in reality – they don’t even continue to survive! And this is only the first year, where pesticides weren’t even banned, just reduced in use. I expect there was significant reduction in the use of pesticides, since the demonization of pesticides was further legitimized by the by-law, and because many people are confused about whether they’re allowed to use them or not. Even if there was no reduction in use, homeowners are faced with taking action or losing their lawns next year, and the apparent action required is related to the by-law.
I am assuming that you’re aware that the lost lawns are primarily due to insect damage which is preventable by use of Merit (imidacloprid) or salvageable by other pesticides such as carbaryl. I’m not aware that any of the new age mysticism ideology based pesticides in our by-law, or other mysticism based solutions that can address this problem.
Anyway, as I said, this is only the first year and we have hundreds of thousands of dollars of lost lawns. This is going to get worse. By the end of next year, those that don’t re-sod and/or apply pesticides will have mud/dirt lawns similar to the dirt flat between the sidewalk and the road at 232 Summerfield. They will be at best like the park on Jenson (which should be paved over if it is going to look as much of an eyesore next year as last). I don’t accept this as what the majority of us want for our beautiful community.
You will see that my lawn is in reasonably good shape. That is in part due to using 2.5 times as much water this August as I did last year, and 5 times our normal monthly consumption. You see, when insects feed on the roots of plants such as grasses, this can be partially offset by providing more water to make up for the smaller root mass, and to allow the plants to grow fast enough to keep up with the root feeding. There are areas of my lawn where we didn’t water as much as needed due to the limited time we have available to water our relatively large lawn, which demonstrates this, as these areas do have pretty significant damage. I would have rather applied a bit of insecticide and used the normal amount of water, but I’m trying to adapt to the new government enforced ideology. That, and the pesticide by-law was exchanged for my good will and support of meaningful environmental initiatives such as water conservation for impositions of others’ ideology on pesticides.
The other reason that my lawn looks as good as it does is that I have some Merit applied to it last year. It doesn’t give two years of control, but it did knock back the insect population enough so that it could at least survive if it had enough water. I have one of the biggest properties in the sub-division, with a net lawn area of about 10,000 sq.ft. An application of Merit would apply 26 grams (about a table spoon) of imidacloprid. Using this every second year would work out to 13 grams/year. The average lawn is probably about a quarter my size, or would need about 3 grams/year on this basis. How much have we given to save 3 grams/year of imidacloprid per homeowner who has insects invading their lawn?
So regardless of whether or not you believe we should be allowed to use pesticides, what are the residents of Guelph going to be allowed to do next spring? The by-law is unusably vague in its wording re use of pesticides to avoid probable substantial loss. Are we or are we not allowed to use Merit next year? A reasonable interpretation for anyone in my neighbourhood is that there is significant probability of substantial loss to their lawns if they do not apply pesticide. So it’s either using Merit, or using about 1300 grams of carbaryl later on. I’m sure you have heard this story before, but now it is reality since the infestation is severe, and a lot of people need to make the decision if they want to save the lawn.
Also important to the decision is that Merit may be applied by commercial applicators only. Since commercial applicators are banned from applying pesticides next year other than for the specific exemptions, this is something that has to be dealt with for next spring, with time allowed to communicate it to the community.
The practical questions are:
o Are commercial applicator going to be allowed to apply Merit (or other imidacloprid products if duly labeled) in Guelph in areas as highly infested with insects as the Summerfield area?
o How will commercial companies know what areas they’re allowed to spray in?
o How will homeowners know if it is okay for commercial companies to offer to spray and to actually spray their property?
o How will this be communicated to the community? JK