Archive
WILDLIFE KILLERS AT HOME?
26/09/2024
You may unwittingly be harming our wildlife without realising it in your use of household products. The Wildlife Trusts and charities such as Buglife want us to be much more alert to how products commonly used at home are having an adverse impact on nature. This is particularly concerning when our wildlife is already under so much threat and in worrying decline from climate change, extensive development of our green spaces and over-intensive agriculture.
You may not realise it, but many products commonly used in the home are toxic to wildlife. For example, treating your dog with parasiticides for fleas or ticks such as those that contain the chemicals imidacloprid and fipronil (and several others), can lead to these poisons getting into waste water systems when you bathe your pet or when your dog goes swimming in pools and waterways. We, and nature conservation organisations generally, recommend avoiding parasiticide chemicals and instead using flea combs and tick hooks.
Many people are not aware that ant eradicators and other insecticides, invertebrate killers generally, washing-up liquids, herbicides and many household cleaning products are toxic in the environment. It is important to seek out environmentally friendly makes such as Bio-D, Ecover, Method, etc.[1] There is also concern about veterinary medicines generally, and of course, safe use and disposal of human medicines and garden chemicals.
At Betts Ecology we are proud to monitor and limit chemical and harmful product use on our sites to ensure wildlife toxins to not enter the environment. At a time when so much of our wildlife is under threat and the UK has become one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries, we all have a duty of care about what we pour down the sink or allow into the environment by any means.
[1] These web sites have helpful information:
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/actions/watch-what-you-wash-away
