When the weedkiller comes out in Mayo, away go our animals and birds
COUNTRYFILE
PADDY’S Day is always something of a turning point. Through the weeks before we are filled with uncertainty. When will spring arrive? Or will it?
But now, suddenly, out of the blue, as if the cloak of winter had been pulled away, we find ourselves beset on all sides by all manner of growing things and our world is becoming green once more.
Frogspawn, deposited in select water bodies by a dwindling army of female frogs, is turning into a heaving mass of many thousand tadpoles.
It is easy (and encouraging) to see how this part of our natural heritage could be properly restored in short order, if only it were given the chance.
There could easily be a million frogs where now there are few. What can we do to help them along?
Cutting back on herbicide and pesticide use is a good start.
The use of glyphosate, an important ingredient in Roundup, has long been considered harmless to amphibians, that rather bizarre group of animals that can live both in water and on land, and can breathe using lungs or through their skin at will.
Ireland has three native amphibian species. All of us are familiar with the common frog, or at least we should be.
But the smooth newt is much more unusual. Being small and rarely seen, it can be easily overlooked. Yet almost any body of water is likely to have a newt or two passing through.
Our third amphibian species is rather unusual. The natterjack toad occurs naturally in only a handful of sites along the Kerry coastline, although it has recently been introduced to new territories in various parts of the country.
Are there toads in Mayo? We haven’t heard of any, not yet, but considering how easy it is to transport a small amount of toad’s spawn to new locations, and how fashionable it is to lend a hand to ‘rewilding’ the countryside, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they turned up. And they’d be welcome, of course.
But let’s go back to our herbicides and pesticides. Working with the Department of Biological Science in the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Rick A. Realyea studied the impact of roundup on various species of frog tadpoles.
In one of two major experiments Realyea conducted, Roundup killed between 96 and 100% of immature, larval stage or tadpole amphibians exposed to the chemical.
This process of sickness leading to death took three full weeks – long enough for any mass die-off in real life to be ascribed to other causes by anyone who wanted to do so.
In his second experiment, Realyea sprayed Roundup on frogs that had already progressed beyond the tadpole stage. This time, up to 86% of the animals died within one day of exposure.
The more we find out about agricultural and garden sprays, the worse they appear to be. In years to come we shall surely be asking question: Why did we allow this to happen? Why did we do this at all?
Yes, we find ourselves firmly planted in spring, the growing months. Unfortunately, not everything that grows does so in the right places. What happens then? Out comes the weedkiller and away go our animals and birds.
We feel just a little sorry for our beekeepers, who’s honeybees forage freely several miles from home. The bees have no concept of poisoned flowers, just as our frogs know nothing about Roundup. But we do.
The newsman has been telling us how the United Nations and the World Meteorological Society are issuing Red Alert warnings regarding our changing climate.
What comes next? Will we never learn?