A weed killer question

[Jenz]

I've never had my own land or been fully responsible for any before, so sorry for two questions about fields and plants in one evening!

I'm keeping my boy at a lady's house with fields and stables (ie not a livery yard, as such) I look after her ponies and fields in return.

The next door neighbour's field (only a fence dividing our horses and their sheep) looks as though it must've been sprayed with something, a weedkiller maybe. All the nettles have gone black and dead in that field. The thistles don't seem to have died and the grass unaffected. The nettles on our side of the fence are fine, green and healthy, so it's not something like too much wind and hot sun.

What would do something like that and is it likely to be harmful to the horses?

I don't know the neighbours and apparently they're not the most friendly, so can't really ask.

 

[Donkeymad]

Different weedkillers kill different things, so it may well have been sprayed. As your nettles are unaffected, i would just forget about it as it is unlikely to affect your horses. Obviously drift has not crossed to your land.

 

[Jenz]

Phew. Do most people rely on good relationships with neighbours when it comes to weedkillers/sprays and the possiblity it may be harmful? If they had said they were doing it I would have moved the horses away from the ajoining fence. Or maybe he knows it's not harmful so didn't feel he needed to say anything as the field is full of sheep and they're fine.

 

[SpottedCat]

Most weedkillers that you can buy 'over the counter' are not harmful to mammals anyway - stuff like that is pretty specific these days, and as such it wouldn't concern me overly much. I might have a word just for my own curiosity to see what they are using as I can't think of one which would kill nettles and not thistles - usually they either kill grasses or they kill everything else.

 

[Donkeymad]

Thistles at this time of year are pretty much full grown, already in flower. Spraying them now does little harm to them and does not often kill them. They really need to be hit very young.