Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren boglebom Here. Whether you're putting your
Speaker 1: green thumb to use in your container, garden or home landscaping,
Speaker 1: you're no doubt in a battle against weeds. Those pesky
Speaker 1: pain in the you know what's for both people and
Speaker 1: plants caused many of us to turn to hardware store
Speaker 1: shelves for commercial weed killers. While it's true that they
Speaker 1: pack a strong punch and do the trick, they can
Speaker 1: also cause a lot more harm to the environment than
Speaker 1: meets the eye. However, homemade weed killers can do the
Speaker 1: same job as the store bought ones and with a
Speaker 1: lot less damage. As we all know, bees play a
Speaker 1: crucial role in pollination and in the ecosystem, but commercial
Speaker 1: weed killers are contributing to the problematic decline bees population.
Speaker 1: The culprit glyphosphate, this active ingredient in herbicides, punches bees
Speaker 1: right in the gut quite literally. For the article this
Speaker 1: episode is based on How Stuff Works, spoke with Andrew C. McCall,
Speaker 1: pH d, Associate professor of biology at Dennison University in Grandville, Ohio.
Speaker 1: He said the most common herbicide glyphosphate or round up,
Speaker 1: has been studied in bees. Mostly it can kill beneficial
Speaker 1: gut microbes and bees, which could make the insects more
Speaker 1: susceptible to harmful microbes. Glyphosphate can also negatively affect navigation
Speaker 1: in honeybee workers. In particular, it looks like they have
Speaker 1: a harder time finding their way back to the hive.
Speaker 1: But bees aren't the only arthropods who feel the toxic effects,
Speaker 1: McCall said. Glyphosphate can also indirectly affect many insects because
Speaker 1: it can kill lots of plants that insects eat. The
Speaker 1: most prominent example is the common milkweed, an important food
Speaker 1: source for monarch caterpillars, and given that these sprays land
Speaker 1: on the ground surrounding the weeds, it makes sense the
Speaker 1: chemicals could affect the soil too. McCall added. Glyphosphate binds
Speaker 1: to soil particles and can negatively affect bacterial communities and fungi.
Speaker 1: Even the ingredient used as the transport mechanism for glyphosphate
Speaker 1: plays a harmful role. It's known to be even more
Speaker 1: toxic to aquatic life, including fish, frog, shrimp, and algae
Speaker 1: than glyphosphate itself, and it can easily trickle elsewhere since
Speaker 1: it doesn't get stuck in the soil and hangs around
Speaker 1: longer before degrading. So how do you kill weeds without
Speaker 1: harming the environment. You can, of course take the old
Speaker 1: fashioned and uncomfortable approach and pull weeds up manually, but
Speaker 1: with just a few common household ingredients you can safely
Speaker 1: knock them out with less effort and money. Here are
Speaker 1: three easy recipes for homemade weed killers that really work.
Speaker 1: The first is a combination of vinegar, epsom, salt, and soap.
Speaker 1: This simple concoction of three ingredients we most likely have
Speaker 1: in the pantry or under the kitchen sink is guaranteed
Speaker 1: to stop weeds in their tracks. A note about that salt.
Speaker 1: Anytime you add salt to soil, you will affect the
Speaker 1: soil and make it difficult to grow things there in
Speaker 1: the future. So if you're targeting weeds where you want
Speaker 1: nothing to grow, like a driveway or cracks on a patio,
Speaker 1: for instance, go ahead and use the salt. But if
Speaker 1: you want to plant in that spot in the future,
Speaker 1: leave the salt out of this recipe or use it
Speaker 1: very sparingly. That said, here's the basic recipe. For a
Speaker 1: quart or one leader of white vinegar, you'll need half
Speaker 1: a cup about a hundred millilaters of epsom salt and
Speaker 1: a tablespoon or so about fifteen millileaters of liquid dishwhing soap.
Speaker 1: Pour the ingredients into a spray bottle and shake until combined.
Speaker 1: Then let it settle for two minutes and spray on
Speaker 1: the weeds. Make sure to soak the whole weed, but
Speaker 1: watch out anything you inadvertently spray will also be killed.
Speaker 1: Let it stay on the weeds for twenty four hours.
Speaker 1: The weeds should be dead within a day. Uh note
Speaker 1: for best effect, spray weeds on a sunny afternoon when
Speaker 1: they are dry. And The next homemade solution is even
Speaker 1: more simple. It's just boiling water to get rid of
Speaker 1: weeds in a driveway or sidewalk cracks. You can just
Speaker 1: boil a pot or kettle of water and then pour
Speaker 1: it on the weeds, and take caution and pour slowly,
Speaker 1: being careful not to splash any on yourself. The water
Speaker 1: will kill the weeds right away, but it won't kill
Speaker 1: the roots, so you'll likely need to repeat the process
Speaker 1: on new growth. For areas that require a bit more caution.
Speaker 1: You can selectively trim down weeds and then cover them
Speaker 1: with newspaper and mulch. The combination of a layer of
Speaker 1: paper and a good couple inches of mulch will block
Speaker 1: the sunlight and air from reaching developing weeds and stop
Speaker 1: them from germinating and growing. As a bonus, newspaper will
Speaker 1: break down over time, leaving nothing to clean up. Looking
Speaker 1: for a healthy, long term solution, keep it native. Planting
Speaker 1: native flowers in your garden and native grasses in your
Speaker 1: yard can help cut down on the amount of weeds
Speaker 1: they're inherently better at competing for crucial light, nutrients, and water.
Speaker 1: Or you can take it a step further and replace
Speaker 1: your lawn or landscaping with native ivy or moss. With
Speaker 1: a little outside the box thinking and a few household ingredients,
Speaker 1: it really is possible to win the war against weeds
Speaker 1: without harming the environment, your garden, your yard, and the
Speaker 1: bees will thank you. Today's episode is based on the
Speaker 1: article natural weed Killers Made Gardening Safe and Easy on
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot Com, written by Katie Carmen. Brain
Speaker 1: Stuff is production of I Heart Radio in partnership with
Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com and is produced by Tyler Clay.
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