Best use of slug pellets is everyones responsibility
Despite heavy rain in September and early October encouraging slug activity, growers and advisors should take joint responsibility to make sure slug pellets are used only when they are really needed, warns ProCam.
The new Metaldehyde Stewardship guidelines for this autumn place greater reliance on the need to maximise the effectiveness of pellet application and ProCam is taking the Stewardship Guidelines very seriously, says Dr Tony John, Director of Marketing and Technical Services.
Disregard to the protection of water could easily mean the loss of a key active ingredient, metaldehyde. So we are doing everything we can to ensure the responsible use of pellets this autumn, he says.
For example, our agronomists are out there trapping and monitoring slugs across the UK. We have the first reports of higher slug numbers in the west and this can only increase in the current conditions.
ProCam agronomists have also taken the PA4 pelleting application course, so they know the ins and outs of best application practise, he reports.
Slug pellets must be applied carefully, with as much precision as any pesticide, using thresholds and a fully calibrated machine. If conditions are such that you wouldnt spray a pesticide, such as when heavy rain is forecast, then dont apply a pellet.
The use of top quality slug pellets will make a huge difference to control levels as well as minimising the risk of water pollution, says ProCam agronomist Nick Myers.
Good quality wet process pellets made from food quality flours retain their integrity longer and are more resistant to wet weather. Greater persistency gives them more time to kill more slugs. They spread more accurately and evenly, with little dust, and cover the soil more effectively, he says.
Crucially wet process pasta pellets such as TDS Major are less likely to leak metaldehyde into the soil than dry process pellets.
Nick points out that poorer quality slug pellets are usually cheaper, but are often a false economy as they easily disintegrate in very wet conditions.
Poorer quality pellets break down whilst spreading and can then wash down through the soil, increasing the risk of water contamination, which must be avoided.
Lower quality pellets may have to be applied two or three more times for the same end result, he says.
With the strict stewardship guidelines with regard to the maximum application of metaldehyde, multiple applications are not advisable.
As a reminder the maximum total dose of metaldehyde applied from the 1st August to the 31st December is just 210 gms active/hectare. This is equivalent to 5kgs/ha of TDS Major. For additional protection of water BASIS advisors may recommend rates down to 160 g a.i/ha or less
Without proper stewardship of metaldehyde products, we could be facing a future without them, a situation which could have dramatic effects on what crops we grow and the overall profitability of arable farming.
Slugs pose a threat from crop emergence up to four true leaves in oilseed rape and up to the start of tillering in winter cereals and these crops need careful monitoring from emergence onwards, Nick Myers adds.