Slug bait okay around chickens?

[rosawoodsii]

I bought some Escar-Go! from Gardens Alive and just sprinkled it around my badly slug-eaten kale. Is this safe around my chickens? It says "don't have to be concerned about secondary poisoning of wildlife or pets", but I'm really not sure what that means. The active ingredient is iron oxide, but other ingredients aren't listed.

Has anyone else used this product? Just because it's organic doesn't mean it's automatically safe (Rotenone has an LD of 50, for goodness sake), so I really need to know if my chickens need to be barred from this area.

 

[dragonlair]

I've never used it, but it was recommended to me because it will not hurt any other animals except slugs and snails, or so I was told.

 

[crazy chook]

I would assume that secondary poisoning would mean that the slug eats it then a chicken eats the slug. Chicken would be secondary.

It does not say that the chicken would not be harmed if it ate the poison - and all my chickens are dumb enough to eat the poison. i would not use it.

 

[rosawoodsii]

I finally found some information on this, and it appears that it's safe around chickens. This is only one of the things I found online.

http://www.northcoastgardening.com/2009/06/organic-snail-slug-control/

Iron phosphate bait, also sold under the names Sluggo, Worry-Free, and Escar-Go, is an extremely effective organic bait which has ingredients that are generally regarded as safe for food use by the EPA (not that you’d want to eat it – you can overdose on iron, you know!).
.....
Iron phosphate is non-toxic to pets and wildlife. One caveat, of course, is that you should sprinkle the bait out and never set it in piles that would be easily ingested. Just like your kids shouldn’t down a bottle of iron-containing vitamins, pets shouldn’t eat a pile of iron phosphate. But sprinkling is the proper method for using it anyway, since when it’s placed in piles it can mold.

I'll still keep the chickens out of it if I can--I really don't want them tearing up my plants anyway--but I'm not going to be worrying about it anymore.​

 

[LAchickchick]

Hi,

I know this is an old post but it came up while I was searching for any information about using iron phosphate in a chicken loved backyard. I just started using small amounts of this slug bait at night. I sprinkle it only when/where I see slugs. Before the chickens come out in the morning, I always rake up any extra granules.

I'd love for the chickens to eat slugs, but the slugs only come out at night. I would be so mad if I came out to the garden and saw everything mowed down by slugs. Ugh!

LAchickchick