Kamloops city gardener talks about alternatives to pesticides
KAMLOOPS – A few bugs or noxious weeds are not enough to throw city gardeners off their game, not when they have goats and ladybugs on their side.
Kirsten Wourms, a head gardener with the citiy, manages a complex weed and pest management schedule that uses organic methods wherever possible to keep Kamloops green, clean and problem free.
The schedule is called integrated pest management, a series of escalating methods to control bugs and weeds. Various methods from hand weeding to biological and chemical controls are all part of the plan.
“In the nature parks we’ve actually released a lot of… little bugs that eat specific weeds and grass.” Wourms says, describing some non-chemical methods used. “In the greenhouse, we’ve released ladybugs… (and) parasitic wasps.”
While the goats are perhaps the most visible pest control method used, eating the seed heads off of weeds in parks for several weeks each summer, the city uses a diverse system of organic means. Wourms has also used corn gluten, an agent that actually coats the weed seeds preventing them from sprouting, as well as using a rolling machine over park trails that spouts hot steam over weeds.
While these methods, along with clove oil and chamomile tea, have proven effective, one of the best methods has been vinegar.
“Vinegar is unbelievable, I use it at home, too.” Wourms says.
It works especially well in areas with hard surfaces, like park paths or the cracks in your driveway. Wourms puts the vinegar in a spray bottle and after two to four treatments, the weeds are gone.
“A lot of times with the vinegar, if it’s a really hard surface, I’ll put some salt down as well. It kind of smells like salt and vinegar chips.”
Through the pest management program Wourms and her crew try to use pesticides only as a last resort. Pesticides are only used after a number of non-chemical treatments fail.
“The very last step is to use anything chemical,” she says. “The city is definitely practicing ‘what else can we do’.”
If weeds amass in a huge area that might result in five parks people needing to hand-pull for five days, Wourms would then consider chemicals.
“What’s the cost recovery benefit of that, is it going to be as effective if we do a spray?”
Sometimes pests get so bad any means is deemed necessary, Wourms says, explaining how pine beetles decimated 90 per cent of the pines in Kamloops.
“There was no chemical for them, but there were some hormones and things that could be used,” she says.
Even then, Wourms would rather use other alternatives. When the tussock moth and the spruce bud worm targeted Douglas fir trees, traps were set in parks to monitor bug levels. When the levels become high, the city now uses a naturally occurring, non-chemical pesticide, BTK, to help control them.
“Luckily, though, we haven’t had to spray for three years now,” Wourms says.
If a city-wide pesticide ban does pass, currently a motion council will consider in mid-July, Wourms says not much will change in her department.
“If there is a pesticide ban, I think the biggest thing is going to be the change in public perception,” she says.
We’d have to realize dandelions aren’t that big of a deal, she says, and parks might also get a lot weedier. Wourms says it’s all about changing ideas of what acceptable or tolerable limits are.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Dana Reynolds at dreynolds@infonews.ca or call 250-819-6089. To contact an editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
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6 responses
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TO TITSN–Again, YOUR home-made pest control concoctions and recommendations places YOU in VIOLATION of federal law! http://wp.me/P1jq40-2GfBesides, vinegar DOES NOT WORK!
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TO TITSN–Stick to what you know in Red Deer.You know NOTHING on matters concerning pest control products.
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KIRSTEN WOURMS IS IN VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAW.Home-made pest control concoctions and recommendations violate federal law!http://wp.me/P1jq40-2GfWourms recommends vinegar, clove oil, and chamomile tea, which contravenes the Pest Control Products Act.Additionally, vinegar, clove oil, and chamomile tea are not valid, not effective, not legal, not economical, and not safer as an alternatives to registered-conventional pest control products.Virtually all such alternatives are bogus.http://wp.me/P1jq40-24gHome-made pest control concoctions are bogus and illegal.It is a violation of federal law to recommend or sell products for controlling pests that are not registered under the federal law.If someone recommends or sells material with the claim that it controls pests, it technically becomes a pest control product.Such a claim, in either verbal or written form, regarding an unregistered product becomes technically a violation of federal law.The illegal recommendation to use home-made pest control concoctions as a means of controlling pest invasion is in violation of federal law.Preparing, storing, and using unregistered home-made pest control concoctions can pose risks to health and environment.These pest control concoctions and recommendations are bogus, and are not scientifically tested.Most are not valid and effective.These pest control concoctions and recommendations are written by anonymous or non-expert authors.These pest control concoctions and recommendations are not subject to stringent, science-based evaluations, and are not supported by scientific research and documentation.This is regardless of whether the product is mere vinegar, clove oil, and chamomile tea.Wourms is expected to retract her comments, and have her recommendations removed from her blog.The public is directed to complain about Wourms the appropriate COMPLAINT CHANNELS.Complain!Complain!Complain!We are the National Organization Responding Against HUJE that conspire to destroy the Green space and other industries ( NORAH G ).As a non-profit and independent organization, we are dedicated to reporting about NON-EXPERT PESTICIDE-HATING FANATICS, as well as the work of RESPECTED and HIGHLY RATED EXPERTS who promote ENVIRONMENTAL REALISM and PESTICIDE TRUTHS.http://wp.me/p1jq40-8DVGet the latest details athttp://pesticidetruths.com/WILLIAM H GATHERCOLE AND NORAH G.
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KIRSTEN WOURMS IS IN VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAW.Home-made pest control concoctions and recommendations violate federal law!http://wp.me/P1jq40-2GfWourms recommends vinegar, clove oil, and chamomile tea, which contravenes the Pest Control Products Act.The fact that Wourms is associated with the I-Can-Garden blog site makes this violation even more distressing. Additionally, vinegar, clove oil, and chamomile tea are not valid, not effective, not legal, not economical, and not safer as an alternatives to registered-conventional pest control products.Virtually all such alternatives are bogus.http://wp.me/P1jq40-24gHome-made pest control concoctions are bogus and illegal.It is a violation of federal law to recommend or sell products for controlling pests that are not registered under the federal law.If someone recommends or sells material with the claim that it controls pests, it technically becomes a pest control product.Such a claim, in either verbal or written form, regarding an unregistered product becomes technically a violation of federal law.The illegal recommendation to use home-made pest control concoctions as a means of controlling pest invasion is in violation of federal law.Preparing, storing, and using unregistered home-made pest control concoctions can pose risks to health and environment.These pest control concoctions and recommendations are bogus, and are not scientifically tested.Most are not valid and effective.These pest control concoctions and recommendations are written by anonymous or non-expert authors.These pest control concoctions and recommendations are not subject to stringent, science-based evaluations, and are not supported by scientific research and documentation.This is regardless of whether the product is mere vinegar, clove oil, and chamomile tea.Wourms is expected to retract her comments, and have her recommendations removed from her blog.The public is directed to complain about Wourms the appropriate COMPLAINT CHANNELS.Complain!Complain!Complain!Reynolds is MISLEADING Kamloops about ANIMALS as some kind of green alternative!HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS per year are SQUANDERED AND MISAPPROPRIATED in mechanical weed control BY USING ANIMALS FOR MOWING AND WEED SUPPRESSION.Animals like GOATS and SHEEP, CONTINUOUSLY CWAP grass seed, along with urine and poo, and DESTROY fields with their hooves.GOATS AND SHEEP DESTROY THE ENVIRONMENT!http://wp.me/p1jq40-6XgWe are the National Organization Responding Against HUJE that conspire to destroy the Green space and other industries ( NORAH G ).As a non-profit and independent organization, we are dedicated to reporting about NON-EXPERT PESTICIDE-HATING FANATICS, as well as the work of RESPECTED and HIGHLY RATED EXPERTS who promote ENVIRONMENTAL REALISM and PESTICIDE TRUTHS.http://wp.me/p1jq40-8DVGet the latest details athttp://pesticidetruths.com/WILLIAM H GATHERCOLE AND NORAH G.
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For a few years now I’ve been using Allen’s Double Strength Cleaning Vinegar with a couple of drops of dish soap to help it stick to the weeds and it works fast and is very effective on the weeds in my driveway and walkway.Less expensive than pesticides and is also great for cleaning.Only place I’ve found to purchase it, is at Coopers in Brock.
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