The European Union has voted to ban the use of methiocarb slug pellets, over concerns about the pellets' effects on farmland birds including sparrows.

image expired

EU Member States' representatives in the Council agreed to withdraw methiocarb slug pellets from sale throughout the bloc. Methiocarb, manufactured by Bayer CropScience, is an active ingredient in Draza forte and Decoy Wetex products.

The timetable for withdrawal will not be known until February, though Bayer said on Tuesday that it expects sales to be permitted until August 2014, with farmers being allowed to use up stocks over the following year.

Company spokesperson Peter Stacey confirmed that, "2014 will be the last season that methiocarb slug pellets can be sold in the UK." He claimed that the EU decision would be "a major blow for many growers and could result in many more crops being rejected."

Although methiocarb products are widely used in the UK, metaldehyde pellets account for the vast majority of the slug pellet market. However, metaldehyde manufacturers have come under increasing pressure in recent years, as the product has increasingly been found in watercourses, including those used to supply drinking water. Water treatment practices cannot currently remove metaldehyde.

The ruling does not affect other uses of methiocarb, such as in seed treatments (as in the product Mesurol).