Is Yellow The New Green
Posted by auroracitizen on May 6, 2012
Yesterday, I had the occasion to drive around Aurora running a number of errands. I was shocked by the volume of dandelions .
It seems like every square inch of town owned boulevard is covered in yellow dandelions — which will soon turn to white seedlings and spread across Aurora.
Residents are fighting a losing battle against these plants in spite of the fact that everywhere I turned people were out digging these pests from their lawns. Trying to hold back their assault.
Since the ban on pesticides, the state of green has diminished.
There are now more environmentally and people friendly methods available of dealing with these weeds, but it looks like to town has thrown in the towel. Resultant, if you are unlucky enough to live near any town owned land, you are going to soon be overrun with the weeds moving onto your property no matter what efforts you make to maintain a healthy green lawn.
If Aurora doesn’t want to be overrun by these weeds — then something needs to be done.
Aurora Citizen 
Marie said
I noticed last summer that, while Aurora’s parks and green spots were heavily dotted with yellow dandilions, Markham’s remained quite green. Maybe it’s merely a matter of cutting the weedy grass — a ban on herbicides doesn’t mean a ban on mowers (though, sometimes around here, you wouldn’t know it!) So what does Markham know that Aurora doesn’t know??
Anonymous said
Weeds? Seriously? If dandelions and the state of your lawn are a major cause for concern, then you are living a very fortunate life, indeed.
Tim the Enchanter said
None of the new treatments kill weeds – they may “help control” them.
That’s exactly why the cosmetic pesticide ban wasn’t – and never will be – applied to farmers and golf courses.
Proper weed killing chemicals used by homeowners made up less than 10% of pesticide use in Ontario but the ban was an easy sop to eco-nuts.
Lots of “green” press and no nasty backlash from business – save for the lawncare companies.
It’s a little like the alar scare of the late 80’s. The apple coating was declared a carcinogen and the market for apples plummeted until it was revealed that one would have to injest tons of apples to accumulate enough “killer” alar.
Of course proper weed killer is poisonous (that’s why it works) but unless the kiddies are mixing it with Koolaid is there any real imminent danger?
The use of chemicals continues more or less unabated and our lawns and public areas look like crap. No matter. We’re saving the planet don’t ya’ know.
May the god of your choice help the eco-nuts if they ever find out dandelions cause cancer or give off high frequency radiowaves – they’ll implode!
And before you run off to your solar-powered keyboard and start presenting stats on the percentage of lab mice that failed algebra or were otherwise put off their lunch by exposure to 2-4-D let me say I agree to pesticide bans in principle.
BUT
Telling me I can’t use them but the guy down the street can is just silly.
Either the pesticides are dangerous or they are not.
Either we ban them or we don’t.
amlr said
Hot boiling water works – I use this method to kill dandelions that grow between my patio stone, it called cooking. It will kill the seeds too.
I tried on other weeds growing between the stones, but they are more resistant and don’t cook that easily. The problem with dandelions are the amount of seeds per head.
Well if town wants to use this method, good luck :).
Anna
anonymous said
Sorry. Tried the new chemicals; didn’t work. On the upside, kids too young for decent jobs could get together and rent themselves out over the weekends, after school and during the summer. It might work on my street, maybe on lots of others. Just an idea. I’d have jumped at the concept at their age.
anonymous said
I like the idea of using the younger kids – they would be outside & with friends. Not sure about supplying bug spray; they might have to bring their own in case there was an allergy. How much should one pay per kid per hour so as to be fair and not try and take advantage – but also not to get taken for a sucker?
Anonymous said
We were told last summer by a “weed controller” that the provincial government has banned all chemicals that KILL weeds. He could spray our lawn with a substance that would turn our weed tops black, but would not kill them. He recommended a second application 2-3 weeks later. After the first spraying nothing happened, the weed tops were still green and didn’t even look shrivelled.
After paying $160 for the first application I called and told him to forget about the second.
If anyone out there knows how to kill dandelions please post the name of the chemical that will do this. Otherwise be prepared to sit on your lawn for hours while you use the little dual pronged gadget to remove them one at a time.
Anonymous said
Sure, It’s called Killex, and you can buy it anyplace in Buffalo, New York. No need to smuggle it across the border, the Federal agents deem rthe ban a provincial issue, and will not stop importation of small for personal use by citizens.
(Nice job, McGuinty)
Stuff works great too. Cheap, effective and safe.