A call to change behaviour on slug pellet use

摘要

Metaldehyde-based slug pellets could be restricted unless they are used more carefully. In the first of a major series of articles supporting the Metaldehyde Stewardship Group's "Get Pelletwise" campaign. Two years ago nobody imagined metaldehyde slugpellets could be in the firing line. The water companies didn't consider that residues in river water of this popular and effective pesticide would pose anything like the problem caused by other pesticides. But a revised desktop study identified that 6-10,OOOt of pellets applied to farmland each year posed a much greater risk to water supplies than previously imagined, so further tests were initiated. What emerged surprised the water companies, pellet manufacturers and the whole industry.