Err yes, probably illegal at the moment. 
All I can say is that the box that contains the small bottle I have is clearly marked “Authorised for garden use”.
It’s a brushwood killer rather than just for simple weeds, and can also be used to kill the roots of tree stumps so that they don’t start growing again. Made by Bayer Jardin.
When we bought the house, the small garden was just a tangle of brambles 8 to 12 feet tall that had been there for years. We cut the whole lot down to about 6 inches from the ground and then waited for it all to sprout with new leaves the following Spring. That is the time to treat it with a root killing chemical. Just the one application did the trick. Just need to be patient as it takes several weeks to fully kill things off. Once the roots are dead they become brittle and so digging the ground becomes much easier. Overall, the whole process takes about 12 months.
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I had similar brambles in the 251 sq.m parcelle of land I just bought cut down to ground level by 2 men with with heavy duty brushcutters. A month or so later I ran my own tracte brushcutter/mower over my intended paths through it. Later I will make occasional similar clearances over the rest of it as well as maintaining the paths regularly. It is not an onerous task and takes very little time.
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Yes, in the past I have also used that method in respect of keeping things tidy under trees in an orchard. However, it does not kill the bramble roots and so they will keep sprouting up again. So, that method isn’t suitable if one wishes to grow flowers or vegetables. When it comes to tenacious brambles, digging them out simply doesn’t work as even the smallest piece of root left in the ground will regrow. So despite the eco concerns it is necessary to kill the roots if one wishes to grow other plants. If chemicals are used sensibly, and always in strict accordance with the instructions, there really isn’t a problem.
Perfect for starting an uncontrollable fire! I do use a flamethrower and it’s very successful but not right now.
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Certainly not the bloke in the check shirt, but pretty sure the smaller picture bottom right is me. Working in the office I would have had a tie but taken it off for the demo and, being a very well brought up lad, opened the neck of my shirt as a result. To this day I get a jerk of disapproval if I see someone tieless with the shirt buttoned right to the top. 
The rolled up shirt sleeves is me too, never been known to fasten shirt cuffs. Only thing is I don’t remember doing a path next to a wall would they have had photoshop back in 1961 ish?
Glyphosate will work, it might take multiple applications but it will work.
All the hysteria about poisoning the soil is just that, hysteria, it becomes inert in the soil in days/weeks.
You only have to spray something and watch how annual weeds will soon take their place if the soil is left bare.
I am nowhere near qualified enough to discuss the health risks but what most people don’t realise is we are consuming glyphosate on a daily basis. The use is widespread by farmers to kill their live cereal crop to speed up the drying process.
Anyone who thinks whole wheat is healthier will actually be consuming much more glyphosate because of the traces on the husk.
Legally, in France, as well I can’t comment, but make no mistake, domestic use is but a drop compared to agriculture.
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I find that very surprising bearing in mind the precautions recommended by the manufacturer to prevent ingestion during application.
I’ve never known farmers use glyphosate on their crops. The only times that I’ve seen farmers using a herbicide on crops was to burn off the holms of potatoes a week before harvesting using paraquat or diaquat or selective broadleaf herbicides early in the growing season.
The dessication of crops by glyphosate is banned in the EU I believe.
Well I don’t know what they are using round here, but there are still times in the spring when entire fields are being sprayed that in a few days turn a sickly orange as the weeds die. And whole greenhouses cleared by weed killer - needless to say, I don’t buy fruit and veg from farmers that are doing that.
When they spray around the local fields although its low to the ground I still put on my vapour mask as I can smell it in the air so it will be in your body. People can argue the toss on glyphosate until the end of time as far as I am concerned. If you want glyphosate go movevto America, sickest nation on the planet.
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With an expensive and inefficient but very profitable health service.
See Southpark on the Trump thread.
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Sad but true.
Just bumping this back up, forgot to say glyphosate is also estrogenic so cancers like breast cancers could well be increasing due to the consumption over a long period of time.
The “evidence” here is that glyphosate at high concentration (which no one outside of the agri business encounters) can, maybe, increase proliferation of breast cancer cells in vitro.
Please keep the speculation to proven links.
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Yeah but pretty sure you can smell it.
It’s the perfect way of destroying ivy! Lidl sell a similar heat gun and I can highly recommend it, sub €30 and very good quality - it roars and makes ivy ‘pop’ - a very satisfying sound!
I’m puzzled as to why anyone would do that. All you have to do to kill ivy is cut the stem where it comes out of the ground.
Unless of course, your gun rips all the dead stuff away from the wall as well, I admit that is a very time consuming process.
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