Lawn care and pets (a dog specifically)

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southern-ct-4
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Lawn care and pets (a dog specifically)

Post by southern-ct-4 » September 30th, 2021, 3:03 pm

Following up my post on insecticides (viewtopic.php?f=37&t=26927), I wanted to ask how you guys do other aspects of lawn care if you have pets.

Specifically, things like fungicide, general weed control (2,4,D), harsher weed control, tenacity/certainty (i'm always fighting poa triv and can't imagine not using tenacity to light it up), glyphosate (i will likely no longer use under any circumstance, and will have to rely on vinegar maybe when trying to kill stuff), etc...

I know that many/most of these products safe it's safe for humans/pets once it's dry (or watered in and then dried), but I'm still extremely hesitant.

Thank you.

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MorpheusPA
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Re: Lawn care and pets (a dog specifically)

Post by MorpheusPA » October 1st, 2021, 4:43 pm

Tenacity I don't worry about. It's rather non-toxic so once dry, it's of little to no concern.

I'm not a heavy hand with anything else, so I use it as necessary and only allow the dogs back onto the lawn after it dries. Rather than use it, I instead encourage the lawn to be as strong as possible and outgrow issues on its own.

Glyphosate, contrary to your usage, is one I actually don't worry about. May I be blunt here? The "proof" of its problems is flatly badly constructed and not proof at all. It has, in more formal verbiage, a bad "p" value.

southern-ct-4
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Re: Lawn care and pets (a dog specifically)

Post by southern-ct-4 » October 2nd, 2021, 9:31 am

Thanks so much, I'll definitely take this into consideration.

bolson32
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Re: Lawn care and pets (a dog specifically)

Post by bolson32 » October 3rd, 2021, 9:48 pm

How do you feel about fertilizers Morph? Less of a concern than herbicides?

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MorpheusPA
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Re: Lawn care and pets (a dog specifically)

Post by MorpheusPA » October 4th, 2021, 7:20 am

Variable. Urea's practically harmless and used as a nitrogen source in cattle food. In smaller amounts, it's not of any concern. Animals won't consume it in larger amounts and will automatically counterbalance consumption with water intake.

Other nitrogen products vary between no and little concern, and those that are of concern are generally not used in the home lawn.

P, K, and iron sources are of little to modest concern, but in amounts used, it rolls up to "don't worry about it." While possibly toxic, these are the sorts of things that may actually be in your daily multivitamin because they're actually helpful in small amounts. They're just poisonous if you get far, far too much.

And so on. Irritation of paws or skin is possible, but toxic reactions generally aren't likely.


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Dchall_San_Antonio
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Re: Lawn care and pets (a dog specifically)

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » October 4th, 2021, 2:47 pm

I used to be anti glyphosate and probably for the reasons the op is anti. I should delve back into it, but it seems the juries awarding big claims against Monsanto/Bayer are ignoring the science presented to them and voting on the emotional issues. Again, I need to look more into it. It's the bad press and big awards which has Big Glyphosate taking it off the market.

As for the topic, I keep my dog inside until the Round Up dries. I don't normally use it on big areas, but we recently bought a house with far too much lawn and the subsequent water needs. We're moving most of the lawn to Asiatic jasmine, but that does require killing off the grass where the jasmine is going. So dog stays inside until the spray dries and even the next morning until any dew dries.

As for fungicide, I don't use it, but I would read the label 3 times before I did use it.

southern-ct-4
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Re: Lawn care and pets (a dog specifically)

Post by southern-ct-4 » October 25th, 2021, 3:50 pm

Quick follow-up; how do you guys feel about Milo, Mag-i-Cal and DG Humic acid in terms of dog safety? We're expecting 2 inches of rain tonight/tomorrow, so I would apply something after work today and keep dog off (most of) the yard until after it dries at end of tomorrow. I would likely skip a big portion of back yard (as puppy will need to go out tonight/overnight).

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MorpheusPA
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Re: Lawn care and pets (a dog specifically)

Post by MorpheusPA » October 25th, 2021, 6:15 pm

Least-concern on all three. Dogs may be attracted to Milo just because of the way it smells. It's pretty harmless even if ingested, although it may cause digestive...issues...and discolored feces due to the iron content (I also suffer the same when I take iron). Try to avoid that with younger dogs; iron is more toxic to young animals, including young humans, than adults.

They shouldn't have any attraction to the other two, but HA is pretty harmless in moderate amounts (it's actually ingested medicinally by some humans who should go see a doctor instead), and HA-bound calcium isn't going to be much of a problem either.

Any of the three can irritate paws, of course, but even that's unlikely.

southern-ct-4
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Re: Lawn care and pets (a dog specifically)

Post by southern-ct-4 » October 25th, 2021, 8:08 pm

Great, thanks so much!

lVlrBoJang1es
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Re: Lawn care and pets (a dog specifically)

Post by lVlrBoJang1es » April 27th, 2023, 12:21 pm

2 puppers in my household.

I've resorted to doing my lawn care broken into two parts - this can be challenging if you're relying on rain to wash in your apps however.

Hit the front yard, keep it off limits for a few days - doggos have free reign in the back. Hit the back a few days later, doggos have free reign in the front.

Rest of the time it's a damn free for all haha... :yahoo:

Lucky in that my furry family members don't seem to be attracted to milorganite. More worried about them rolling in deer and rabit poop which they can't seem to get enough of, and manage to find just about every moment they're unsupervised in the yard. :roll:

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