Lawn Chemicals and Your Pet — A Bad Combination
You don’t have to be a scientist to figure out that there are a lot of dangerous chemicals out there. The warning labels on chemicals in your home tells you all the things you should not do with the product. If you are smart, you will follow their recommendations. What you might not think about is how these chemicals affect your pets.
Most household chemicals are not in areas accessible to your pets but the chemicals you use on your lawn definitely are. Chances are your dogs or cats go out to your lawn and play every so often. The chemicals on your lawn can be dangerous for your pets.
Dangerous Pesticides
Lawn chemicals used to kill bugs and other pests are called pesticides. A lot of people use insecticides and herbicides and both are dangerous to your animals. Insecticides work so well because they damage the nervous system of the insects. In most cases, the insecticides you put on your lawn are not going to be deadly for you or your animals but they can be dangerous to the nervous system. Most of the time, we do not get pesticides close enough to us to be harmed but don’t forget your pets roll and play in your lawn so they are exposed to a lot more of the pesticides.
You may use herbicides to kill the weeds in your yard and keep it looking good. The herbicides work so well on weeds because of the active ingredient which is 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2-4-D). Agent Orange, which was used in previous wars like the Vietnam War, also had this dangerous chemical in it. The veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange often have severe health problems. Dogs are especially susceptible to the dangers of 2-4-D and it may increase their likelihood of developing cancer.
Inert Ingredients
While we know that the active ingredients in pesticides can do harm to humans and animals, we sometimes forget about the inert ingredients. Things like cadmium, toluene and hydrocarbons found in pesticides can be left of pesticide labels so some people do not know that they are even in there in the first place.
Fertilizers
Fertilizers are usually safer than pesticides when it comes to your animals. While fertilizers are without the dangerous chemical ingredients, they do have a lot of heavy metals like iron which can be dangerous for animals.
Products like “weed and feed” are a combination of fertilizers and pesticides. This combination holds a particularly large danger for your animals because a lot of people are not aware of the presence of dangerous chemicals. You need to carefully study the ingredients of anything you apply to your lawn to avoid hurting your pets.
Pets really need a natural lawn with no pesticides or other dangerous chemicals or metals. If you have to use these products, make sure you find one that is relatively safe for animals and make sure your pets do not go on the lawn for a few days after you treat it with any sort of chemical product. You want a nice lush green lawn but you also want healthy pets so you need to be careful what products you use.
Tags: Active Ingredient, Active Ingredients, Agent Orange, Cadmium, Dangerous Chemical, Dangerous Chemicals, Dangerous Pesticides, Dogs Cats, Dogs Or Cats, Health Problems, Herbicides, Household Chemicals, Hydrocarbons, Inert Ingredients, Insecticides, landfills and your health, Lawn Chemicals, Pesticide Labels, Pests, Toluene, Vietnam War, Warning Labels, Weeds