Bird safe weed killer?

Hello! I was wondering if anyone could suggest any weed killers that are safe for ground birds? We have paving slabs and the rather wide strips between them have been inundated with weeds and errant bird seeds that have germinated. Can anyone recommend bird-safe weed killers? I’ve tried:

  • Weed burners (butane)
  • Pouring boiling water over them
  • Pulling them up by hand
  • Weed scraper (looks like a hand scythe)

The last two work but I can’t keep up with it, they sprout faster than I can pull them up. I sweep up the stray seeds nightly but theres only so much prevention I can do. We have so many birds (wood pigeons, collared doves, jackdaws, blackbirds, pheasants, magpies, and many more) pecking between the stones and even pulling up worms so I want to make sure whatever I use is safe for them. Are the weed killers that are supposedly pet safe once dried alright to use?

We are renting, so we can’t do anything major like pull up the stones and install ground covers to completely prevent growth between the stones.  

This picture is from a couple weeks ago and there’s much more growth by now (sorry for the poor pic, was a screenshot from a video taken from my cell phone). Our yard isn’t the prettiest but I find so much joy in seeing all the birds (and hedgehog, voles, and field mice) that come by!

Any help would be appreciated Slight smile

  • Thank you for linking me to this post, Linda! It looks like Pathclear is a Weedol product with glyphosate and diflufenican, which is good news as these are two commonly used herbicides. I think I may even have some in the shed; will try it out on a dry day!
  • I use a patio scraper like this one:

    www.diy.com/.../1586200_BQ.prd

    It takes a little time but its very effective and pesticide free.

    I will be very interested to see results from burners and vinegar as I have not tried either yet, but have been investigating both.

    I tend to opt with a little growth on my patio as I have dog violets and they are too pretty to weed out.
  • I personally wouldn't use this product in my garden... Glyphosate and Diflufenican are both toxic (to some degree) and will harm wildlife.
    Bayer and Monsanto might disagree.
    It's worth persevering with other methods and knowing that the food chain is still intact.
  • I use the AMTECH 2000W electric garden weed burner.

    https://amtechdiy.com/product/2000w-electric-garden-weed-burner/

    After seeing a neighbour use one, I had to get one, and boy am I impressed.

    As someone who has used powertools for many years, AMTECH are a reasonable budget brand, and this has been no lesser at durability. No chemicals, direct heat to the weeds, doesn't scorch patios and reasonable gentle with wooden panels, but be warned, wood will burn.

    Apart from a wobbly handle, which I managed to sort with some gaffer tape to take the slack up, its been the ideal weed remover and has had some abuse from me as to weed clearing sessions being quite prolonged.

    There are two caveats

    1. Beware the power lead can be scorched and burned,
      1. so ensure you plug in to an RCB 
    2. You will gain the odour of garden fire smoke

    Todate, no damaged cables, but there's always a first time, and I usually make it the last job of the day, so the next call is a nice shower.

    Would I buy another?

    Most definitely YES, and the same brand again.

  • What a good idea, it's a heat gun with an extended handle...
    I'll take a look at these to replace my ancient butane jobby.

  • Hi there, I have been using this in areas where the gaps are about 1-2 inches wide and the germinated seeds are so small and stubborn that it’s hard to pull them up by hand. My husband just yesterday pointed out that because it pulls up all the dirt between our paving stones (the tiny plants have become so abundant that pulling them up also pulls up all the dirt and pebbles between the stones), it makes the gaps between the stones even deeper which will be more difficult to remove weeds from in the future unless we can fill it immediately with something. However the patio scraper has been great (and satisfying) for the gaps that are extremely skinny!

    I’m wondering if I should skip the vinegar/weed burners and just pull all the weeds and seeds out with the scraper and then immediately fill the gaps in with this paving grout? www.wickes.co.uk/.../131899

  • Thanks for your comment! I was still a bit hesitant/wary about using an herbicide like that and with the additional comments about vinegar and weed burners, I’ll definitely try those methods first.
  • Thanks for your input! Do you find it kills the weeds down to the root, and how long does it take to see results? The butane one I have is quite week and would take a very long time to do anything against even the smallest shoots/sprouts, but I admit it felt very satisfying haha.

    I wasn’t able to find an RCB plug but found an RCD plug, is that the same thing?

    Unfortunately the product you referred to is out of stock on Amazon but there seem to be similar ones of the same power and price range. Given the increase in electricity rates and our economy 7 tariff, I might be burning weeds at midnight! Haha
  • This looks good...
    More labour intensive initially but will probably reduce to a manageable amount of growth.
    I did a similar thing on my Welsh slate patio and it definitely helped. I still use the vinegar method to stop algae build up as it's lethal underfoot... I sweep the whole area with a vinegar mix in the early spring and again in late autumn and seems to work.
    Wildlife, especially birds, have massively increased in number in the last decade of my attempt at organic management on my own property.