Sodium Chlorate

Please have they now found a reliable alternative to dear old Sodium Chlorate now it has been banned to destroy ALL organic mater?

 

Glysophate

That's about it now ...... Not the same by any means

 

Pathclear? Combination of glyphosate (which will kill anything green) and diflufenican which will remain in the soil and interfere with photosynthesis of anything that germinates

 

Thanks folks

 

I did not buy any marked as Path Clear as the crafty makers did not quote what they contain, so I had to buy one actually stating it contains glyphosate.

Surely makers of such products should be made to quote the chemicals in case of accidents such as involving children, so that Hospitals etc know how to treat such poisons.

 

I got the details [in my earlier message] of the contents from their website. Maybe the details were on a fact sheet in the box? But I agree about needing to be clearly labelled.

Glyphosate will only kill anything green you put it on, it has no residual action at all (dunno if that is important though?)

 

You can get the C.O.S.H.H. sheet for most poisonous stuff on line.

http://www.bashplots.org.uk/COSHH/Pathclear.pdf

 

Wouldn't caustic soda do the trick? That destroys everything. Except potatoes.

I used to have a mate who used it to decoke his motorbike exhaust. He used to remove the exhaust, then mix the caustic soda solution in a galvanised steel bucket. Then he'd jam a spud on the outlet end of the exhaust, lean it up against the wall, and pour the caustic soda solution into the inlet end. Then he'd leave it for a couple of hours.

It cleaned his exhaust very well, and his galvanised steel bucket went rusty in no time, because the caustic soda had eaten the coating.

In a seperate anecdote, my dad once had a massive wart on his finger. He'd been treating it with some cream that he was given for it, but it wasn't going. One night he'd had a few beers (unusual for my dad, who is mostly teetotal), and so put some caustic soda crystals on his wart. There was enough moisture in his skin to initiate the reaction, and I kid you not, vapour (either smoke or steam, not sure) came off it and we actually watched in amusement as his wart burned away. I would never condone or endorse that kind of behaviour mind. But it was funny.

 

Poisoning the soil such as with Caustic Soda or Sodium Chlorate has both good and bad points. It may remove the chance of anything else growing on a footpath, but there is of course the risk of destroying other plants for some time afterwards.

I did try a strong bleach mixture with no success such as on Marestail prevalent here in Hastings, perhaps because the solution was not strong enough.

Though I admit Hospitals probably have access to all sorts of info. of dangerous chemicals in products, surely as we see their A & E departments are busy enough already without having to search for such info not quoted on the packets etc.

 

That says
2,4-D
Amitrole

Diuron

whereas Scotts site:
http://www.lovethegarden.com/product-details/pathclear-weedkiller-lc-12-tubes
has the product label:
http://www.lovethegarden.com/system/files/user-files/product/label/02-13/pc-weedkiller-lc-label.pdf
which says:
Contains 20 g/L diflufenican and 125 g/L glyphosate formulated as a suspension concentrate

I don't reckon we stand a chance!!