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View Full Version : Mercury as a crabgrass killer...



ouwasp
1/27/2012, 12:25 AM
The other day I read about a product called Scutl. It is 90% inert material and around 10% mercury. Not enough of a concentration to warrant the "poison" label. Supposedly works wonder on ridding yards of ugly crabgrass after it is scattered about. The article was in Reader's Digest, so it has to be legit, right?

Oh yeah. This particular issue of RD is from August 1950. Picked it up at a flea market last week. Wonder what the odds are of finding a fresh carton of Scutl to use on the yard this spring?

TheHumanAlphabet
1/27/2012, 01:43 PM
Wonder if your yard will become the next Super Fund site and be deemed hazardous???

What's odd, someone still had a 1950 Reader's Digest to sell it...

Mississippi Sooner
1/27/2012, 01:46 PM
Scutl is still available at your local farm and garden supply store. It's right next to the chlordane and DDT.

Jacie
1/27/2012, 02:23 PM
Might be less toxic to just spray diesel fuel all over your yard . . .

cccasooner2
1/27/2012, 02:30 PM
Ahhh, those were the good old days when the chemistry teacher would show everyone how much fun it was to rub it around in the palm of your hand and watch it disappear. Sniff....., those days are long gone.

KantoSooner
1/27/2012, 03:28 PM
Was it chlordane that was good for killing ants? In any event, we had a nest of 'cow killers' or wooly ants on our property about ten years ago. The contractor who built the place said he had just the thing. Came back with this bottle of stuff (the label said to dilute with water at 20:1 ratio), he poured it into the hole pure. Sure enough, the little buggers didn't boil out all aggravated, they didn't stagger out to die. They didn't do anything. Over the months, the hole filled in and we forgot about them.
I like my chemical warfare that way.
Quiet and final.

Seriously, though. get 'Grass B Gone' and use it liberally on the crab grass. It messes up the grass's abilty to metabolize food and they die. I've used it on everything from Johnson grass to bermuda and it works great. It'll also kill yard grass and decorative grasses/bamboo, so be careful when applying.

Whet
1/27/2012, 10:01 PM
Chlordane and DDT combined are not as toxic as today's pesticides.

Although, today's pesticides have a much shorter half-life, they are more hazardous to humans. They make good use of neurotoxins to kill the pests quickly, since they don't last in the environment. The neurotoxins have deleterious effects on you and your pets. Most are easily absorbed through the skin.

Chlordane was an excellent termite pesticide - you could treat the ground before the flooring slab was laid and would last for years and years. DDT was responsible for nearly eliminating mosquito-caused diseases.

Jacie
1/28/2012, 10:29 AM
DDT was responsible for nearly eliminating mosquito-caused diseases.

It was also responsible for nearly eliminating many species of birds (particularly predatory birds such as the bald eagle, brown pelican, peregrine falcon, and the osprey) and was detected in breast milk, which was the straw that broke that camel's back.

jiminy
1/28/2012, 10:33 AM
It was also responsible for nearly eliminating many species of birds (particularly predatory birds such as the bald eagle, brown pelican, peregrine falcon, and the osprey) and was detected in breast milk, which was the straw that broke that camel's back.
Well, if you wanna make a omelette...

KantoSooner
1/28/2012, 11:56 AM
I have some sympathy for the brown pelican, but the goddamn peregrine falcons will just have to suck it up and adapt. I've had about enough from those lollygagging pussies!