pinkladybird

Calsug Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Get a montion activated sprinkler, tried all the > powders and gels they didn't work but the > sprinkler works wonders Yes I like the sound of that. Needs an outdoor tap - but might be worth getting one.

singalto Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Foxes also poo in gardens but, unlike cats, they > don't bury it. It is very rare that I see fox poo in my garden, I don't remember the last time. The foxes are so thin that I don't think that they produce much waste. Not like the huge overweight cats. Also fox poo does not contain toxo gondii parasites which is the main reason I'm concerned about cat poo. And they are not someonelses responsibility. I prefer it when the cats don't bury it. At least I can see it and remove it immediately. When it's buried is the worst - especially on my veg patch. I don't see it, and then one day a nasty handful... It is contaminating my soil. It takes months and months to break down, and introduces parasites and roundworms.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I've tried a few, but think I will try the pee idea next. I thought of an electric fence but don't want to shock the squirrels. I also like the idea of a cat scarer water spray that has a motion detector but need an outdoor tap. It's really annoying as I planned to make a veg patch and spent ages growing all my seedlings etc... but now it's so full of shit that I'm not sure it is even safe to eat any veg from there. The Toxoplasmo gondii parasite can survive in soil up to 18 months...

To all those people insulting Uncleglen,he clearly did not codone the cat killing - he called it 'horrible'. Turtle - he did not condone animal cruelty - obviously he dislikes animal suffering hence his concern for the animal suffering (carnage) caused by the cats. Deainie - 'just picture a child who found their cat slashed open, is that still a good feeling for you?' Picture me - so excited that robins built a nest facing my window so I could see in, only to find the baby birds' headless bodies scattered around the garden - killed by a neighbours pet. Noone I know who owns a cat puts out a litter tray! When I ask them where their cats shit - they go all vague or make light-hearted trivial comments. These are nice people in every other way. Yet when it comes to their cats they choose not to think. They hide behind the fact that it is 'normal'. They hide behind anonymity. So many people are sick to death of sacrificing their gardens and risking their health by being forced to provide a free cat shit collection service. Few people complain - hard to know where cats are coming from and involves confrontation. People just silently seeth. It is no wonder there are so many cat poisonings. The blame lies with lazy cat owners driving others to such measures. Cat shit can contain the parasite toxoplasma gondii. I know of two people who have had damage to their sight because of this. In addition, when someone in the city gets a cat they should also accept that they are responsible for introducing yet another predator to the few remaining wildlife species confined to narrow garden strips. It is not just that wildlife is killed, but even cats that don't kill still cause stress. Just the existence of a cat causes constant vigilance and alarm in birds for example. Personally, if all the surrounding cats disappeared overnight I would open a bottle - for me and the wildlife.

I know quite a lot of cat owners do no bother to put litter trays out for their cats. Well please think that if you're not picking up your cat's crap, then someone else is - and may well be cursing you and your animal as they do so. It is just plain antisocial especially in a city. Cats spread toxoplasmosis, round worm and god knows what else. I never chose to have a pet so why do I have to spend my evenings picking shit? Bags sometimes. Can't grow veg, kids can't play, Seedlings get dug up, birds get killed. I'm particularly annoyed right now as I've just got it all over my hands :( My fantasies of what I want to do to the cats are scaring me... Has anyone tried anything that works?

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I've started getting a tight chest this winter. It's the first time in my life I've had any sensation like it. I'm hope I'm not getting asthma. I've been following the air pollution readings this winter and they have been terrible. Also I bought an air pollution monitor, and it has just confirmed how bad things are. I used to think the air in leafy Dulwich wouldn't be too bad.... I was so wrong. We are surrounded by pollution hotspots from where it blows over. For example, New Cross seems to have one of the worst particulate (pm2.5) levels in London (even higher than Marylebone Rd!). But it really doesn't help matters at all that in an already badly polluted area so many people burn wood on open fires or stoves. My road has been smelling of woodsmoke all winter.

I live near North Cross Road and have a pollution particulate monitor - (particles so small they can directly enter the blood system found in diesel fumes and dust. You can get Foobot/Egg particle monitors on Amazon). On Wednesday morning the particulate level was 16 (it was this level all night. Lowish for Dulwich but not great), but at 9am the level shot up rapidly. By 9.15 it was 95! This is really high. It stayed around this level until around midday then went down to the 30s where it has been ever since (double what it was before). I am guessing a some grinding was going on on a building site and they didn't bother to follow regulations. I don't think the air will clear fully until it rains.

I have no reason to have complete faith in wood-stove manufacturers especially as they know it's not easy to test their products so how will anyone know any better - as the article says : 'And in an echo of the diesel car emissions scandal, measurements during actual use in homes show that the stoves produce more pollution than lab tests suggest.' This is really common in manufacturing when they do tests. There are so many workarounds to get the numbers they want that don't stand up in real-world conditions. The manufacturers have every reason to be creative in their tests. Not sure why the researchers would want to be?? But yes of course, replication is always good - errors can happen. But as things stand, I'd be more inclined to go with the researchers. And as things stand I would take the precautionary principle and eschew the stoves - especially as they are not exactly necessary! With regards to evidence concerning the contribution to overall air pollution:'Last week, air pollution in London soared to heights not seen since 2011...?We think about half of the peak was from wood smoke,? says Timothy Baker, part of a team at King?s College London that monitors air pollution.'..'Wood burning is becoming a big problem in London, too. In 2010, when Fuller analysed particulate pollution to discover its source, he found that 10 per cent of all the city?s wintertime pollution was from wood.There are many reasons to think that figure is higher now. A 2015 government survey found that domestic wood consumption in the UK was three higher than previous estimates, with 7 per cent of respondents reporting that they burned logs. ?Wood consumption is increasing substantially,? says Eddy Mitchell at the University of Leeds, UK...When he, Forster and others fed the data on wood consumption into a computer model of air pollution, their conclusion was disturbing: PM2.5 pollution from residential stoves is soaring in the UK' If you want something more academic, then the BMJ article linked below is pretty interesting and fact filled! http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h2757/rr-1 I know about the cars running for no reason - saw a couple today!

Not sure what percentage of London's air pollution construction is responsible for - but I'm sure it's significant. Except I don't think there is much one can do about that. I went to an air pollution event and the researchers from Kings were there and they were mainly concerned with diesel and then wood burning. Wood burning contributed 50% of the particulates to the last pollution episode - whereour particulate level was higher than Beijing. The other thing is there is no way round construction if one wants to build/renovate. However, burning wood is completely unnecessary - what's wrong with a gas/electric boiler!

I've attached the New Scientist article about defra-approved wood burners copied as a document (couldn't link as you need to sign in to read it).

Jaywalker:maybe the marketing spiel says defra-approved stoves are efficient - but they have actually been tested and found to be highly polluting (New Scientist): 'Even modern stoves described as ?low emission? are highly polluting. And in an echo of the diesel car emissions scandal, measurements during actual use in homes show that the stoves produce more pollution than lab tests suggest. In the ?smokeless? fumes coming from the chimney of a house with a modern ?eco-friendly? wood burner, K?re Press-Kristensen of the Danish Ecological Council has measured 500,000 microscopic particles per cubic centimetre. The same equipment finds fewer than 1000 particles per cm3 in the exhaust fumes of a modern truck. The wood stove was certified as meeting Nordic Swan Ecolabel emission standards, which are stricter than the ones stoves in the UK have to meet.' Yes sure london's main problem comes from diesel and that will take some time to sort out. But 50% of the last pollution episode was attributed to wood burning!

If it's legal then you shouldn't be smelling any smoke - that's the point of the clean air act. Only smokeless coal in an open fire or a DEFRA-approved stove with seasoned wood which shouldn't give any visible smoke or smell. Look up and see if it's coming from a chimney. It is an offence to emit smoke from any chimney. I saw plumes of smoke coming from a chimney opposite me the other day and could smell woodsmoke and it was hurting my throat - so I knocked on the door and told the owner. She didn't seem to realise it was illegal and said she would stop and I haven't seen the smoke again :) Council officers are legally obliged to act and serve notice if they find out and the homeowner risks a 1000 pound fine.

Yes, public information on this is really sparse: Open Fire: NO WOOD Only smokeless coal (this still produces some smoke but less than normal coal) Log Burning Stove: Banned in London unless DEFRA approved. Marketing terms such as "clean burn", "clean heat" and "low emission appliance" are used by some appliance manufacturers but DO NOT mean that they are DEFRA-approved. This link give DEFRA-approved models: https://smokecontrol.defra.gov.uk/appliances.php?country=england Only seasoned wood with a moisture content below 20% should be burnt in an exempt appliance. Note that even with an exempt appliance and even more without, the stoves release particles into the house - not great, especially if you have kids. I think a lot of people just don't realise the harmful effects (I never) - and would stop if they knew. My sister had an open fire and stopped as soon as I told her. The effects aren't just for the vulnerable - all of us are at risk... I think there should be a public information campaign. Links below list what is and isn't allowed. https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/environment/air-quality/smoke-control https://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/content/environment/air-quality-and-pollution/air-quality/guidance-on-wood-burning-stoves/

I bought an air pollution (particulates pm2.5) monitor and kind of wish I never... I live on a quiet residential Dulwich road, but I have learnt NOT to open the windows! Particulates are linked to respiratory issues, cardiovascular (strokes, heart attacks), dementia, cancer - The WHO pm2.5 threshold for short-term harm is 25 ug/m3 daily average (10 ug/m3 annual average for long-term harm). Last night and today London's levels peaked at 100. It has been like this on and off all winter. Two weeks ago we got a warning when it was 100. It has been found that a large portion was due to people's wood burners and open fires. I think this is quite an issue in Dulwich and we could significantly improve our air - literally overnight if people just stopped burning wood. It's illegal to burn wood. It's incredibly polluting - even more than cars (although most of Londons air pollution is from cars). Even the Defra-approved burners give off significant fumes and have been found to fail tests (see links below). 'Few people who install wood stoves are likely to understand that a single log-burning stove permitted in smokeless zones emits more PM2.5 per year than 1,000 petrol cars..' (from BMJ journal below). The air this morning - pm2.5 - peaked at 100 (london highest) and has been around 40-50ish in my house. That grey outside - well I think it's smog. It's cold and people are lighting up their stoves : ( There was recently a good new scientist article - have attached it as a doc as you have to sign in to see it. British Medical Association article link below: http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h2757/rr-1 https://www.newscientist.com/article/2119595-wood-burners-london-air-pollution-is-just-tip-of-the-iceberg/

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Hi James, Thanks for your reply. Sorry I think my post got a bit long-winded and unclear. I'm not asking that Southwark council ban glyphosate, just that they don't spray it on our pavements. The points I was trying to make were: - 'Both products contain glyphosate as an active ingredient but have been shown not to be carcinogenic in tests.' How can Southwark council say this considering the recent WHO announcement? - As for there being no practical alternatives - then how do other European cities such as Paris and Amsterdam manage? With regards to water contamination - as far as I know UK water boards don't test for glyphosate.

'Both products contain glyphosate as an active ingredient but have been shown not to be carcinogenic in tests.' Are they not going to be pulled up on this considering the recent WHO announcement which they should be aware of? Long term effects are incredibly difficult to determine, nevertheless there seems to be an awful lot of research linking glyphosate with various disorders (endocrine disruption, DNA mutation)- not just cancer. I saw a guy spraying North Cross Rd today. There were hardly any weeds on the road as it was. But for every tiny little weed a good square metre of pavement was sprayed. It would have been difficult to be more precise as the spray came out 'watering can-like' from waist level. There was a breeze, and cake/food stalls.... The guy seemed pretty blase`. I mentioned the WHO announcement and his reply was 'that's what they say, but...' he never finished and I was left wondering 'but what?'. He wasn't wearing a mask. As for alternatives, countries and cities around the world have banned glyphosate - including Holland and Paris. How do they manage? I've just been to Paris and it did seem a bit weedier than London but people seem to accept it. Could Southwark council not communicate with Paris/Dutch councils and find out what they do? My road, Crystal Palace Road, is due to be sprayed soon but if you look you will see there are hardly any weeds. I think to spray at this point is completely unnecessary, as it was to spray North Cross Rd. And I think most people could accept a few more weeds (as they seem to in other parts of Europe) especially if they were aware of the risks in getting rid of them. Glyphsate's breakdown time is not known, but is known to be far longer on hard sufaces. Monsanto lost a court case in France for false advertising claims that glyphosate is biodegradable and leaves the soil clean. www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8308903.stm. This means that the glyphosate may ultimately end up in our drinking water via the gutter (this is the reason it is banned from Denmark's paved surfaces). Water treatment plants do not remove this. I have a feeling that eventually glyphosate will be banned for UK council usage, especially as evidence accumulates, but why wait just for the sake of a few weeds. www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/apr/21/glyphosate-probably-carcinogenic-pesticide-why-cities-use-it

I have reposted. I am guessing that my posts were deleted because I didn't include a trade address. That is because I do not have a business - I'm just an individual and didn't want to put my personal address. This time I mentioned the rough area where I live - hopefully that is Ok. Fingers crossed.

Hi, I put up a post yesterday but it was deleted. I read through the terms of use but couldn't work out what was wrong, so thought maybe it was an accident and I posted it again today and again it was deleted. I'm really happy to comply with the rules and don't want to do anything wrong - but I'm not really sure what it is that I am doing. I did get a private message from someone saying 'This price is very slow its not is good for all cleaners.' I wonder if this person reported me. I am charging a low price because I am just starting out and need to build up references/experience - I wasn't aware of any rules against this. Please can someone enlighten me. My post is below: Title - Cleaner available - ?7.50 p/h Hi, I'm available for cleaning work and odd jobs in the Dulwich area. I'm a mature student, conscientious with good attention to detail, and come with plenty of elbow grease! In addition to cleaning I can carry out other tasks including: Shopping Cooking Gardening - digging, weeding etc... Typing and copy editing (50 wpm) Please message me or give me a call if interested - Tammy xxxxxx xxxx