UK Nature and Environment

712 readers

35 users here now

General Instance Rules:

No racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia or xenophobia.
No incitement of violence or promotion of violent ideologies.
No harassment, dogpiling or doxxing of other users.
Do not share intentionally false or misleading information.
Do not spam or abuse network features.

Community Specific Rules:

Keep posts UK-specific. There are other places on Lemmy to post articles which relate to global environmental issues (e.g. slrpnk.net). Research carried out in the UK that affects the UK as well as elsewhere is acceptable.
Keep comments in English so that they can be appropriately moderated.

Note: Our temporary logo is from The Wildlife Trusts. We are not officially associated with them.

Our current banner is a shot of Walberswick marshes, Suffolk by GreyShuck.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

GreyShuck@feddit.uk

Kim@feddit.uk

‘Pesticides by stealth’: garden soil conditioners killing worms, experts fear (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 year ago by GreyShuck@feddit.uk to c/nature@feddit.uk

2 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Gardeners are inadvertently killing scores of earthworms with soil conditioners marketed as “organic”, experts fear, as they call for tighter regulation on products that poison the invertebrates.

Earthworms may appear humble, but Charles Darwin thought their work in improving soil structure and fertility was so important he devoted his final book to them and said: “It may be doubted if there are any other animals which have played such an important part in the history of the world as these lowly organised creatures.”

However, some gardeners who want a tidy lawn remove worm casts, which can be viewed as unsightly, particularly if the casts – made of the worms’ excrement – are squashed and spread over the surface.

all 4 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] maculata@aussie.zone 4 points 1 year ago

“Tidy lawns” is the classic bugbear of utter fuckwits.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 2 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Gardeners are inadvertently killing scores of earthworms with soil conditioners marketed as “organic”, experts fear, as they call for tighter regulation on products that poison the invertebrates.

Despite their potential toxicity to garden creatures, soil conditioners do not go through the same rigorous risk assessments as pesticides, experts say, and are lightly regulated.

Worms ingest dead plant material and break it down into nutrients, and healthy soil is important for a thriving garden and the wider ecosystem.

Worms are thought to be under threat: though studies into their populations are scarce, recent research suggests numbers in the UK may have fallen by about a third in the past 25 years.

Prof Dave Goulson, a biologist at the University of Sussex, has written extensively on gardening in symbiosis with invertebrates, and has been investigating the soil products.

A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokesperson said: “Decisions on the use of pesticides are based on careful scientific assessment of the risks.

The original article contains 648 words, the summary contains 161 words. Saved 75%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!