Ragwort Removal Service
The Removal of Ragwort, Himalayan Balsam & Thistles.
The Removal of Ragwort, Himalayan Balsam & Thistles.
Ragwort is of concern to people who keep horses and cattle. In areas of the world where ragwort is a native plant, such as Britain and continental Europe, documented cases of proven poisoning are rare. Horses do not normally eat fresh ragwort due to its bitter taste. The result, if sufficient quantity is consumed, can be irreversible cirrhosis of the liver of a form identified as megalocytosis where cells are abnormally enlarged. Signs that a horse has been poisoned include yellow mucous membranes, depression, and lack of coordination.
Ragwort is native to the Eurasian continent. In Europe it is widely spread, from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean. In Britain and Ireland, where it is native it is listed as a noxious weed.
Ragwort is abundant in waste land, waysides and grazing pastures. It can be found along road sides, and grows in all cool and high rainfall areas.
It has been introduced in many other regions, and is listed as a weed in many.
Although the plant is often unwanted by landowners because of its toxic effect for cattle and horses, and because it is considered a weed by many, it provides a great deal of nectar for pollinators. It was rated in the top 10 for most nectar production (nectar per unit cover per year) in a UK plants survey conducted by the AgriLand project which is supported by the UK Insect Pollinators Initiative. It also was the top producer of nectar sugar in another study in Britain, with a production per floral unit of (2921 ± 448μg).
Ragwort contains many different alkaloids, making it poisonous to certain animals. (EHC 80,section 9.1.4). Alkaloids which have been found in the plant confirmed by the WHO report EHC 80 are -- jacobine, jaconine, jacozine, otosenine, retrorsine, seneciphylline, senecionine, and senkirkine. There is a strong variation between plants from the same location in distribution between the possible alkaloids and even the absolute amount of alkaloids varies drastically.
If you’ve seen ragwort growing on your land and it concerns you then it’s important to contact our team right away!
Once we’ve received your details, via our booking page, we’ll provide a quote for our removal service to visit and book a date in the diary to remove the ragwort.
We’ll visit on the date agreed and get to work!
Every plant is dug out individually using our preferred Ragwort fork.
No harmful chemicals are used, so your livestock can continue to graze whilst we work and there’s no need to rest your land!
It's recommended to have entire plant lifted by the roots, this can prove more effective than having the area sprayed.
Once the Ragwort is removed, we recommend burning it.
This is a strict control measure as per The Ragwort Control Act 2003.
If you have no way of disposing of the ragwort yourself, we recommend that you contact your local authority for services available.
We currently cover the south of England, Southwest and Northwest of the UK
We cater for all of the UK - further afield bookings we try to group together to make transportation cost viable.
Please use the Facebook link below to keep updated on which areas we are working in.