French wildlife and beekeeping

  From January 1, 2019 , only plant protection and other gardening products of natural origin have been available to home gardeners in France . This was originally to have been from Jan 2022 but was brought forward as part of the French move towards reducing the use of products that are harmful to both humans and the wider environment. This follows the banning in 2017 of the use of Glyphosate, (Roundup), and other synthetic pesticides in public spaces including public roads, parks and cemeteries. (The term Pesticides is used generically these days to cover all “cides”, herbicide, fungicide, insecticide etc. to avoid laborious repetition ).      The use of synthetic pesticides continues to be permitted for farmers and professionals registered to work in the gardening business.   Synthetic pesticides are “a substance that is formulated or manufactured by a chemical process or by a process that chemically changes a substance extracted from naturally occurri...

  Gardeners and householders in France are forever complaining about the presence of voles in their gardens, either because of the holes they make or the harm they can cause to plants and vegetables. Any harm they may cause depends on the species, with some preferring roots and others seeds, grains, leafy plants and even insects.   Although there are eleven species of vole in France, only a few are of concern to gardeners or farmers. As a general rule, these are the Field vole, the Common vole and the Bank vole. The Water vole in its land-based form (known as rat taupier) can have a major impact, but they are only present in some regions of France .   Occasionally some vole species have a population explosion that reaches a peak, and then equally as rapidly the populations collapse back to normal or less than normal for a year or more. What needs to be considered, as always, is the greater good, and voles along with wood mice provide the main food source for a large...

The new list of protected reptiles and amphibians in France has for the first time included the four species of Viper, ( Vipéridés). Vipera aspis - Vipère aspic - Asp Viper Vipera berus - Vipère péliade - Common Adder Vipera seoanei - Vipère de Seoane -  Seoane's viper. Vipera ursinii - Vipère d'Orsini - Orsini's viper For far too long these species have been persecuted  and killed. This combined with the destruction of their natural  habitat has resulted in a serious decline in numbers. Needless to say this will not in itself prevent the continued harming of these valuable species but will send a signal to those with ears to hear and to those in authority   LINK TO LEGISLATIVE TEXT Chris