Ragwort

[jenkinsbrynmair]

It is illegal to pull ragwort without the landowners permission

it is illegal to do or 'pull' anything without the landowner's permission. Rather a strange sentence really, in any context.

 

[Steve L]

it is illegal to do or 'pull' anything without the landowner's permission. Rather a strange sentence really, in any context.

There was an earlier posts- stating they pulled ragwort whenever they were out walking -which is unlawful . Unfortunately it happens all the time in the New forest - and it is often just left. The New Forest is an SSSI and pulling even needs sign off from Natural England.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

My reference was more in the countryside - rather than paddocks and grazing land as I qualified. Livestock would need to eat about 37 kg to cause a problem - and they dont like the taste - so it is usually only an issue where overgrazing has occurred (or land used for haylage) (The spread of the plant onto grazing land is a separate issue) I can't imagine you would be happy if they pulled the ragwort and then left it - which is what often happens - therefore massively increasing the associated risk - by unlawful activity and also putting native species at risk. livestock are less able to detect the obnoxious smell /taste when ragwort is dried.

Until the various early railway companies actually planted ragwort along their cuttings and trackside as an "interesting" plant for travellers to look at as they steamed along it was relatively rare. Now it has spread far and wide. It carpets uncared for land. The bugs that eat it managed just fine before it spread in its special military operation.
It's hardly likely that I would donate honey to anyone leaving pulled ragwort and dropping it on my land but outside my boundary I'd not have a problem with it drying and dying on a roadside so it didn't create viable seed to blow around.

 

[roche]

It was introduced into New Zealand...unfortunately. In the late 1960s there was an elderly woman - Miss Rucroft I think her name was -who travelled the central North Island in a Morris Minor, pulling ragwort wherever she saw it. Her father, who had been a farmer, was bankrupted in the 1920s or 1930s due to his stock eating ragwort and subsequently dying. She spent a significant proportion of the rest of her life extracting revenge on the plant. Unfortunately I suspect her method was flawed, as she threw what she pulled onto the road so that traffic would kill it. I suspect the end result was that a lot more was spread than she eradicated...

 

[Steve L]

Until the various early railway companies actually planted ragwort along their cuttings and trackside as an "interesting" plant for travellers to look at as they steamed along it was relatively rare. Now it has spread far and wide. It carpets uncared for land. The bugs that eat it managed just fine before it spread in its special military operation.
It's hardly likely that I would donate honey to anyone leaving pulled ragwort and dropping it on my land but outside my boundary I'd not have a problem with it drying and dying on a roadside so it didn't create viable seed to blow around.

I think you are getting confused by Oxford ragwort Senecio squalidus. . ,Common ragwort Senecio jacobaea is a native plant and has always been present in good numbers -until recently - which is why so many insects, including bees, evolved to rely on it.

 

[JamezF]

Common ragwort Senecio jacobaea is a native plant and has always been present in good numbers

That was also my understanding.

James

 

[JamezF]

Oddly enough, the issue of ragwort has come up elsewhere in my world today, where someone has basically said in true social media fashion "IF YOU EVEN TOUCH RAGWORT WITH BARE SKIN YOU WILL DIE!!!!!!"

Obviously therefore I have this evening rubbed the ragwort plants outside my back door vigorously against my hand and arm. Should this be my last post, you'll know why.

James

 

[Plastics]

Cinnabar moth larvae making short work of ragwort in back field

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Cinnabar moth larvae making short work of ragwort in back field

there used to be a patch of ragwort near a footpath through a farm not far from Brynmair (footpath led to the house in the middle of the fields where my grandparents lived until I was three) and as a kid I remember the whole corner being alive with cinnabar moth caterpillars, and the neighbouring nettles covered in ladybirds. Since then I've discovered it's also a safe breeding haven for the Marsh fritillary.
And some eejit wants to build a housing estate there!

 

[JamezF]

I've seen Cinnabar Moths this year, but sadly there don't appear to be any caterpillars on the ragwort that I've checked

James

 

[philipm]

As a boy during the summer holidays a local horse farm used to employ me and may mates to pull ragwort from their fields,Bl**dy hard work can't see kids doing the same today.

 

[JamezF]

As a boy during the summer holidays a local horse farm used to employ me and may mates to pull ragwort from their fields,Bl**dy hard work can't see kids doing the same today.

Allegedly it's a poor means of control anyhow because any large pieces of root left in the soil can generate a new plant (or potentially more than one).

James

 

[victor meldrew]

They should have Cinnabar Moth's on them at the moment.

The cinnabar moth caterpillars are also poisonous imbibed when eating ragwort.
they’re black and yellow hooped to warn predators off!

 

[Wilco]

Oddly enough, the issue of ragwort has come up elsewhere in my world today, where someone has basically said in true social media fashion "IF YOU EVEN TOUCH RAGWORT WITH BARE SKIN YOU WILL DIE!!!!!!"

Obviously therefore I have this evening rubbed the ragwort plants outside my back door vigorously against my hand and arm. Should this be my last post, you'll know why.

James

I think the sap causes photosensitisation but I may be getting things confused. Giant hogweed is the really nasty one for that though.

 

[Wilco]

My reference was more in the countryside - rather than paddocks and grazing land as I qualified. Livestock would need to eat about 37 kg to cause a problem - and they dont like the taste - so it is usually only an issue where overgrazing has occurred (or land used for haylage) (The spread of the plant onto grazing land is a separate issue) I can't imagine you would be happy if they pulled the ragwort and then left it - which is what often happens - therefore massively increasing the associated risk - by unlawful activity and also putting native species at risk. livestock are less able to detect the obnoxious smell /taste when ragwort is dried.

As far as I recall, the problem with ragwort is that the toxins accumulate over time. Ingesting large amounts at once may be unlikely but spread over several years is certainly possible and it leads to liver failure.

 

[JamezF]

As far as I recall, the problem with ragwort is that the toxins accumulate over time.

I don't think that's the case. I think the damage done may well be cumulative (assuming any damage happens in the first place), but I don't believe the toxins are.

James

 

[JamezF]

I think the sap causes photosensitisation

I shall be sure not to take any photos of my hand then.

James

 

[Wilco]

I don't think that's the case. I think the damage done may well be cumulative (assuming any damage happens in the first place), but I don't believe the toxins are.

James

I stand corrected (again!)- misrememberingon my part. Yes, cumulative damage over time rather than bioaccumulation although leading to the same effect.

 

[Darryl]

Oddly enough, the issue of ragwort has come up elsewhere in my world today, where someone has basically said in true social media fashion "IF YOU EVEN TOUCH RAGWORT WITH BARE SKIN YOU WILL DIE!!!!!!"

Obviously therefore I have this evening rubbed the ragwort plants outside my back door vigorously against my hand and arm. Should this be my last post, you'll know why.

James

I trust you've appointed a Deputy to look after your hives ............ just in case you don't make it.

 

[JamezF]

I stand corrected (again!)- misrememberingon my part. Yes, cumulative damage over time rather than bioaccumulation although leading to the same effect.

Certainly, the end result is the same if liver damage occurs. The difference is, I think, that the body can tolerate the toxins in small amounts and break them down so they do no damage.

James