The Pest Advice

Kiwicare recently launched a new member of its highly successful Weed Weapon herbicide range. Weed Weapon Direct Hit is convenient, safer, and as fast acting as the Weed Weapon ready to use spray; weeds will fall over with a few hours.

I have found it the handiest weed killer to have with me when I take a walk around the garden. It will fit in my jacket pocket. If I see a weed popping it’s leaves up through a crevice in the path I can give it a short burst of the highly directional foam and the weed will be dead the next time I pass by.

When spot spraying weeds it can be difficult to accurately hit the weed without accidentally hitting surrounding plants, or allowing spray drift to be blown onto nearby desirable plants. The foam of Direct Hit means there is no spray drift. It would have to be a very stormy day to cause the foam to blow onto other plants.

The foam is visible for about 5 minutes so that you won’t waste herbicide spraying weeds twice. And it requires only a small blob of the foam in the centre of weeds such as dandelions or thistles for them to die. It is not necessary to spray the whole weed. Even though it is convenient in the aerosol can, which usually means paying a higher price, because of the reduced waste of spray drift it is economical to use. I have found a single can of Direct hit is sufficient for over 300 weeds of the rosette type and I have used it for spot spraying such weeds in a lawn.



Applying Direct hit to weeds in a ‘lawn’

It is recommended to wear impervious gloves when applying all herbicides and there is no exception with Direct Hit but as there is no spray drifting onto hands, or any other parts of the body, or if the foam did hit any part it is easily seen and washed off making it safer to use.

I did some testing on how accurate and effective Direct is and as you can see below I had some fun.

A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.

Kiwicare is New Zealand’s household name in pest control and manufacturer of the best range of DIY pest control and garden care products. KCLCommercial is the arm of the Kiwicare business that supplies products to the professional pest control and horticultural companies and technicians in New Zealand.

If you are a pest controller or horticultural contractor or would like to add pest control or garden care to your business’s services, KCL Commercial can help. A list of the products available to professional users can be found at the KCL Commercial website http://www.kclcommercial.com/

Products range from highly palatable rodenticide bait and long life possum bait, residual insecticides and organic insect control to herbicides and new herbicide gel. Whatever the pest, KCL Commercial are likely to have a solution for you.

My expertise is mostly in the field of animal pests. If it has legs it will generally have some idea how to get rid of it or keep it away. I have however, been getting more involved in the control of pest plants (weeds). Not just weeds in the garden which are nuisance and make the garden look untidy or compete with the flowers I have planted, but weeds in the environment. Invasive weeds brought into New Zealand and which compete with native plants; things like boneseed, broom, gorse, old man’s beard, wilding pines, ……..sadly the list is extraordinarily long.

Planting natives on the heads above Taylor’s Mistake

I have spent a few weekends helping remove weeds and plant natives. Keith rewards the volunteers with a beer and some of the results of his fishing/hunting. We are hoping the weather will stay good enough to plant another 1600 native seedlings this weekend. Should you wish to join us and help you can contact me or Keith ([email protected]) for details.

Kiwicare has recently donated $1,000 worth of herbicides, fertilisers and possum bait as prizes for the annual Weedbusters Awards. The winners will come from the many community projects around the country dedicated to eradicating pest plants and rejuvenating native habitats for the benefit of all New Zealanders. I am ever impressed by the dedication and effort of so many volunteer groups around New Zealand. What a great country.

When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.  

After spending two days last week on a Red Cross First Aid course I now feel qualified to deal with the most severe paper cuts or perhaps cuts and scrapes in the garden.

The course was very good and something I have always thought I should do. I have been lucky enough never to have come across an accident where any first aid was needed. But there has always been the fear in the back of my head that it could happen at any time and I would not know how to give appropriate help. I hope my luck continues, but if I do come across an accident at least now I feel I could be of some use.

I would recommend the first aid course to anyone and everyone, it might be me that has the accident and need your help.

In the garden it is nearly time to think about doing some tidying up and killing or stopping the development of those early weeds. Kiwicare produces a comprehensive range of herbicides for the control of weeds in all situations. The NO Weeds range includes selective weedkiller and non-selective weedkillers. The selective weed killers include NO Weeds Turfclean, NO Moss in Lawns and NO Hydrocotyl for selective control of weeds and moss in lawns.
For general soil safe weed control there is NO Weeds Buster and NO Weeds Glyphosate. Buster is a better product in that it is active against a broader range of weed species.

A convict in jail got a letter from his wife:
“I am going to plant lettuce in the back garden. When is the best time to plant them?”
Knowing that the prison guards read all the mail, he replied:
“Darling, whatever you do, DO NOT do any planting in the back garden!”
A week or so later, he received another letter from his wife:
“On Friday the police came with spades and picks, and dug up the whole back garden.”
The prisoner wrote another letter:
“Darling, NOW is the best time to plant the lettuce!” 

“Pest control is different in New Zealand.” This might seem to be a strange statement but it is a statement from my own experience. In most parts of the world pest control or pest management is about preventing or eradicating nuisance pests; rats in the roof, ants in the pantry, borer in the floor, weeds in the lawn and other things that annoy us at home or at work. When I worked in the UK and Ireland these pests are what pest management was all about.

All this is true in New Zealand too. There all the problems with nuisance pests, but in New Zealand there is an additional level of pest control. The control of invasive pests that damage the unique natural environment of New Zealand. Possums, rats, rabbits, stoats, gorse, broom,…………………

This extra level of complexity to pest control in New Zealand is exciting. Helping to eradicate or control possums, rats, Argentine ants etc. to protect the natural environment is a much more positive and ‘green’ (if I can use that word) occupation than just stopping a nuisance. Kiwicare is involved in this part of the pest control industry as a manufacturer and supplier of many products which assist in the control of many of these pests; NO Possums long life baits, rodenticides, herbicides etc. Kiwicare is proud to be a sponsor of the NZBI.

The New Zealand Biosecurity Institute (NZBI) is an organisation made up of those involved in or interested in the protection of NZ’s biosecurity and biodiversity. I am a member of this organisation, we are an incorporated society with membership open to anyone interested in biosecurity issues. We organise activities on a local and national basis and produce a quarterly magazine. Come and join us and help us keep New Zealand the beautiful and natural place it is.

A rabbit walks into a bar and orders a beer.
When the beer comes he raises the glass and says “Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeers!”
“Why the long eeeears?” asks the girl behind the bar.