Shall we count the ways that this sign is deceptive, naive, even dangerous? If we were "insect free" we would all be dead. I assume that "Step 3" is an application of pesticides. According to this sign, homeowners are to apply a chemical to kill all insects in their yard including all the beneficial and essential insects. If this is the outcome the application is clearly unhealthy for their kids and pets, me and you, the planet.Here's what Scotts Lawn Care website says about Step 3---
"What It Controls
Controls ants, armyworms, bermudagrass mites, billbugs, chiggers, chinch bugs, clover mites, crickets, cutworms, earwigs, fleas, flea beetles (in dichondra), leafhoppers, mole crickets, sod webworms (lawn moth larvae), vegetable weevil (in dichondra)"
What's wrong with crickets! and most of the other things on this list. All for a green lawn?
We have a healthy, greenish lawn, with a mix of grasses and broad leaf plants, bees, spiders, mites, crickets, and more. Yes, some grubs, which the robins, turkeys, moles, and skunks eat. We also have a yard full of vegetables, perennials, herbs, fruit trees, and shrubs. I would not spread a pesticide on the lawn that could contaminate our food.
Our culture needs to get a grip on this idea of a green lawn free of anything but grass. It is not healthy and is a waste of money. A bit of a rant today, but people need to stop listening to marketing campaigns.
Recently I found a 'Twice-Stabbed Lady Beetle' crawling on me while sitting in our tiny, urban backyard. This weekend a Mud-Dauber Wasp, a type of thread-waisted wasp crawled slowly around our honeysuckle just a few inces from where I sat at the same backyard table. Seeing and learning about such insects is part of the fun of having a backyard.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I see a commercial aimed at killing off whole spectrum of nature I wonder what kind of world we live in........ I think primarily it's one that plays on people's fear of the unknown. That wasp may sting me. That beetle must be doing something bad, etc.