Green Bunny Control

 

When slag (a by-product of blast furnaces) treated plants were compared to normal plants, rabbit grazing damage fell by more than half because the silica absorbed by the leaves gave the rabbits a tummy ache.

Bunnies beware: Significant rabbit problems could be eliminated simply by dusting slag on wheat fields, reports Tom Hopkinson in the magazine, Chemistry & Industry. Researcher David Cowen and his team at Central Science Laboratory showed that applying slag to wheat growing in greenhouses had no effect on yield, but caused the plants to incorporate the silica and express it as spiky structures on their leaves. These spikes put rabbits off their feed, abrading their teeth and giving them a stomachache (Pest Management Science). When the slag-treated plants were compared to normal plants, grazing damage fell by more than half.