The short answer is yes, once the herbicides has dried on the leaf after application. Whilst the herbicide is being mixed, applied and is still wet on the leaf it may pose a risk to pets.
About our spraying services
At Silverstone Gardening we are a licensed pest management business. Our qualified spray technicians help hundreds of clients get great results in their lawns and gardens every year.
We choose the highest quality herbicides and take special effort to use the safest possible option for each weed control service we do. All of our weed control services are sprayed to the professional standard for each product.
All the herbicides that Silverstone Gardening applies are safe for people and pets once the product has dried on the leaf. This can take 15 minutes to several hours depending on the conditions and the product. With people we simply recommend that you stay off your lawn or gardens for a few hours until you are confident that the herbicide has completely dried. For most people this is no problem at all.
However, pets and other animals can be a lot more challenging especially when the owner is not home or the pet is not allowed inside. This is especially important considering that pets do not have shoes or clothing as a barrier to the herbicide if they where to walk over a freshly sprayed area.
Best Practices With Pets
So to ensure that your pet is safe follow these best practices.
Keep your pets indoors, off site, or restrained at least 10m away from the spray technician and the area being sprayed whilst the chemical is being mixed, applied and until the applied herbicide is dry. This could be 15 min to 6 hours or more depending on conditions like temperature, wind, sunlight and humidity. Test the area if unsure.
To test if the area has dried place a piece of paper towel onto a section of treated area. If the paper is dry then the product has dried. If the paper is wet, allow to dry for another hour and then re-test.
Do not feed any treated turf to pets (rabbits, guinea pigs etc.) until treated turf has been removed through mowing. Do not feed treated lawn clippings to pets.
What if I can’t follow these best practices?
Sometimes it is difficult to follow these best practices. If it is simply the specific day the spray is scheduled for that is a problem the best solution is to reschedule. However, we do ask for patience as we may be booked out for 2-3 weeks in the growing season. This can make rescheduling to specific days very difficult or even impossible.
For most people in this situation the solution is to ask a friend or family member to look after their pet for the day.
If there is no possible way that you can follow these best practices then the best solution is most likely to cancel the service.
Silverstone Gardening is a professional lawn and gardening service based in Perth, Western Australia. If you are looking for high quality, professional lawn and gardening services contact our friendly admin team today.
