I spilled Round Up concentrate, what should I do?

6 years ago

I was mixing round-up concentrate with water and during one of those times I accidentally dropped the concentrate and spilled a few ounces. It happen to spill in an area of weeds and stones, no grass . Can I just leave it since it’s in a target area or must I do something like soak the area with water to balance the concentrate?

also on a slightly related topic, while spraying the mixture of roundup and water (proper proportions this time), I accidentally sprayed over a portion of my garden hose. Is there a way I can clean it, or will a day in the sun disinfect the hose itself? when would it be safe to handle that hose next?

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Comments (4)

User
6 years ago
Weeds and stones? You can safely leave it. At high concentration, soil binding may not happen immediately, so runoff in the next rainfall may have some root effect down-stream (so to speak) for some small distance. If you'd rather rinse it into the soil, go ahead. A minor spill of a few ounces is not a big deal and there's nothing you can really do about it at this point anyway.

Excising soil and discarding it is not only overkill, it's actually illegal in a lot of states as you'd be throwing a weed killer into the garbage.

You can wipe off the hose with a wet paper towel (gloved hands, please) and discard the towel. Or rinse off the hose well in a stony area where it doesn't matter. Sunlight doesn't deactivate RoundUp, to my knowledge, at any speed, anyway.

Take normal precautions but do your own research on how carcinogenic glyphosate is. Try to avoid sites with multiple exclamation points and anybody who screams at you.
Neal Rich thanked User
Neal Rich
Original Author
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Thank you for taking the time to answer. would you have any concern walking on these rocks until the next rainfall?

does time deactivate round-up on the hose? Or is water the only way? how long would I need to spray the hose to get the roundup off?

thank you for helping me during this nervous moment
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rifis (zone 6b-7a NJ)
6 years ago
Yes. Very good. Deactivate, not disinfect.
Neal Rich thanked rifis (zone 6b-7a NJ)
User
6 years ago
RoundUp (glyphosate, but RoundUp actually does include diquat dibromide as well for a speedier response as glyphosate is not a fast herbicide) deactivates upon soil contact and then decays via bacterial action (bacteria consider it dinner) over some months.

I can't find any indication that it has any other rapid decay mechanism (and, in fact, most sources indicate that it's fairly stable in sunlight and very stable in water. Which makes sense; that's why the bottle is white and the listed dilutant is water.

Personally, I'd rinse off the rocks (and the hose) with the hose a bit before interacting overmuch with them and I'd probably be hesitant to lick the rocks before a good rainfall.

As far as immediate toxicity goes, there's little to no concern. Toxicity is >5,000 mg/kg in rats, which is pretty much going to be the same in humans. You won't be exposed to that much, and that makes it less toxic than table salt.

And again, I'll encourage you to research the cancer links on your own. Personally, I consider the evidence fairly weak. Inevitably, somebody out there will come back with, "but I know somebody..." That's too bad...but "anecdote" does not equal "datum."