cinnabar moth (photo credit: Pengannel)
Ragwort is a precious British wild flower that is essential for the survival of the cinnabar moth. Ragwort is an essential food plant for the caterpillar and without it this bright red day-flying moth could be under threat.
Sadly, for the moth, ragwort is also a demon plant for some because it is toxic. This has led to some organisations to make exaggerated claims in order to highlight how important it is to get rid of one our our natural wild flowers.
Advertising Standards Authority orders removal of false claims.
Last month the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) stepped in to the argument and ordered a number of organisations to stop making false claims about the wild flower. The claims included misleading claims about the number of horses that die each year from eating ragwort and that it was a legal requirement for landowners to control the plant.
The organisations rapped by the ASA were:
- Monsanto,
- Barrier Biotech Ltd,
- Ragfork,
- The British Horse Society,
- Warwickshire Council.
All were deemed to have misleading information on either web sites or leaflets. All the organisations agreed to remove the information.
False claims made about Ragwort.
Monsanto made false claims that land owners have a legal obligation to control ragwort and prevent it’s spread. There is no such legal obligation. If ragwort becomes a problem in an area and there is a major threat to livestock then a control order can be put in place to require land owners to control the spread but it is not mandatory requirement without the local control order. In fact the government’s own agency the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs make it clear that ragwort is an import native plant for wildlife and especially insects.
Both The British Horse Society and Warwickshire County Council were rapped for promoting leaflets on the council website that stated it was an offence to allow ragwort to escape from your land when there is no such offence.
Ragfork made incredible claims on their web site that ragwort was responsible for upto 6,500 horse and pony deaths a year when the reality is that numbers are so low that the government no longer keeps figures. The last recorded figure in 2005 showed that 13 horse and pony deaths occurred from ragwort poisoning. They admitted that they had no evidence for their claims and removed the statement from their website.
Fighting the myths about ragwort.
Neil Jones, the Buglife and Swansea Friends of the Earth member, who raised the issue with the ASA said “Ragwort is subject to a whole set of campaigning myths which are repeated daily on the internet and in the press, including speculation about the spread of ragwort becoming greater every year. I am glad to see some of the organisations spreading the untruths are being held to account.”
Matt Shardlow, Buglife Chief Executive said “At least 30 insect species are entirely reliant on Ragwort and about a third of them are scare or rare. Ragwort is also a critically important nectar and pollen source for hundreds of species of butterflies, bees, moths, beetles and flies, helping to maintain what remains of our much declined wildlife. While it can be harmful to horses in large amounts the main threat is dried ragwort illegally sold in hay and this is where we should focus efforts, not on spraying the countryside with more pesticides, or ripping plants out of roadside verges”.
There are still numerous websites and leaflets with misleading Ragwort information. You can help to encourage the promotion of legal, honest and trustworthy information about this wildflower by contacting those misleading sites and drawing their attention to the Government’s ‘Ragwort Code’ or the Ragwort information pages on Buglife’s website”.
Ragwort is essential for British insects.
While the cinnabar moth is probably the best known insect that is reliant on ragwort there are many other species that have very close association with ragwort either as food or habitat. In fact 30 species of insects are restricted to ragwort as a source of food. These include:
- 7 Leaf Beetles,
- 12 Flies Including attractive picture-winged flies,
- 1 Macro Moth The Cinnabar moth,
- 7 Micro Moths,
- 1 Aphid,
- 1 Thrip,
- 1 Mite.
Another 22 species have a high reliance on ragwort as a source of food. Of the 53 species that use ragwort as their only or major food source 7 are nationally scarce and 3 are in our national red data book.
The move by the ASA to tackle some of the misleading information about ragwort has to be good news and help to end some of the more extreme rumours and claims and one of our most important and beneficial wild plants.
External sites:
