I figure they must have a commercial "applicators license" to use herbicides. Who issues that license?
The bastards treated my neighbor's back yard last week, and they sprayed
2,4-d through the fence and into my vegetable garden. I recognized the twisted new growth as being herbicide damage before I even found the little ChemLawn sign in their front yard.
While I was writing down the phone number from the little sign, another neighbor came by and said he's complained to ChemLawn before about them leaving Weed-n-Feed granules all over the sidewalk when they were done.
Sorry to hear about your garden. Most states regulate the lawn care industry but, in most cases, the "safe use" of herbicides is not done very well. You may also check with your county, some have some regulations that they must follow.
One way to deal with companies like that is to sue them in small claims court (sometimes not worth the trouble). If you have a local TV station that has a "consumer affairs" person, it may be worth it to call them and see if they will do a story on them (especially if the lawn company gives you any "lip", which they OFTEN do).
This would not be worth suing, because I can't really prove much economic damage, and it's not very spectacular. The plants may or may not grow out of the damage, and it's just a few plants affected -- all my yellow squash and maybe a few of my tomatoes and peppers, but the tomatoes and peppers have just about recovered. Only the squash was actually sprayed, and a little drift or overspray onto some raspberries. They must have used an ester formulation rather than amine, and the tomatoes and peppers just got a whiff of it.
I think I'd get more satisfaction treating this as an EPA thing or a criminal tresspass issue; I don't think I could get anyone to take the criminal complaint seriously, but the regulatory issues should fly if I can find the right agency to complaint to.
I'm having enough trouble this year with rabbits, squirrels, roaming cats, and cool nights. I don't need this kind of trouble on top of it. At least the beans look good and they are growing faster than the rabbits can eat them.
While I like the idea of the TV station's consumer affairs, if they don't put the right spin on the story (which is likely if the ChemLawn people jump at the chance to make things right in front of the camera), it's just free advertising for ChemLawn. On the other hand, if the consumer affairs reporter puts the right spin on it, the station could expand it into a story on how organic gardening is now more in favor than better living through chemicals.
One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is having a talk with the neighbors. Tell them how disappointed you are because of ChemLawn, and show them the damage. They may not be aware that those chemicals aren't magic chemicals that only do good. Get the right dialog going, and you can show them ways they can do without the expense of ChemLawn next year. It won't save this year's veggies, but it may protect future years veggies.
Of course call ChemLawn so no one can say you didn't give them a chance to fix things, but then follow through with complaints to your state's agriculture department, environmental protection department, any local county or city departments... well, just about anyone who'll take a complaint. The complaint may not result in action, but even if they sit in a file until enough other complaints come in, they doing some good.
***IMMEDIATELY*** call your town hall when they open on Monday morning and find out what your judge needs (paperwork, photographs, etc) in order to charge the spray service with civil trespass. You can include the neighbor, too, if they become beligerent about the situation. I went through this successfully about 4 years ago here in Rochester NY.
If anyone wants to start a debate about whether this qualifies as trespass, please save your energy. This is not a guess or a theory on my part. Our local judge was prepared to issue an injunction to keep my neighbor from allowing Chem Lawn to spray along our property border. He told me to inform my neighbor and the spray company that the police would be ordered to arrest them on the spot if the stupidity continued. This did the trick nicely.
Unfortunately, lawn spray companies will hire anything with a driver's license during the busy season. Doesn't matter how stupid they are, and they most definitely ARE stupid.
See my other post. Trespass is the way to go. You'll need to show pictures to a judge, indicating that since your vegetables are near the property line, Chem Lawn cannot spray anywhere near that line. Get on this immediately.
It's unlikely that you'll be able to get any sort of monetary reward for your plants. But, keep in mind that it's probably not safe to eat anything from the ones which recover, at least during this season. For more about this, contact your state's environmental department.
Interestingly, this is a subsidized house owned by the county. The county owns and maintains it and rents it out to poor people. I'm pretty sure the county hires the lawn service, not the occupant -- so I would be injoining the sheriff. The county attorney's office is who I'll call first about the civil trespass.
Trespass is defined by state statute. What's true in New York may not be true elsewhere.
A few years ago there was some debate about some guy in New York being arrested at a shopping center for something or another. In the middle of that debate I decided to go to the horse's mouth, and read the New York statutes. They were quite different than other states. As I recall there were even degrees of trespass, some being civil, and others being criminal.
As for going down to the "town hall" to get a judge, that's a bit of a unique thing by area as well. When I lived in Wisconsin, nearly every incorporated municipality had a court. Out here in Oregon, few do. In both places, you don't just go down and get to see a judge. You have to file a motion, and be placed on a docket or calendar. And when you file your motion, you need to specify which particular law is being broken, and how. If you are seeking a remedy, you're going to need to specify that as well. Unless you're really savvy, and have some time on your hands, you're going to need a lawyer to get through this process.
You may also find that in many places cases like this (involving little monetary damage, and not likely to be an immediate danger to health or safety) your case will be diverted from the court system to mediation.
If running down to town hall, and showing a judge some pictures that morning works were you are, then that's a viable option. I'd have to say you're in the minority.
Also, since the OP has added the information that the house is owned by the county, and rented, it probably wouldn't even be as simple as your situation even if that unique option was available. In most places a municipal judge doesn't have jurisdiction to order the county to do anything.
The court system is seldom the answer to neighbor disputes. And it certainly should never be the first thing anyone tries.
One thing I was unclear of from your post: did you actually see the ChemLawn guy spraying or do you just have a strong suspicion? (I'm not doubting that it happened as you say it did, but I also know that in court you'd need more than strong circumstantial evidence in a situation like this.)
If you have the equipment and can estimate when they'll be returning, it might be worth setting up something that would videotape them completing the service.
A friend of mine used to use our local ChemLawn company to do his yard. His neighbor worked for the FBI. One day while the neighbor was working at home he saw the ChemLawn guy drive up, get out of the vehicle, write up a bill, and place it on the customer's door. He never actually did any kind of service. Rather than drop the company upon finding out about this, he arranged some video equipment he had to tape when the company came out the next time and had a videotape showing a repeat of the previous occurence.
It's amazing how quickly one can get a refund for all money paid when the company is presented with clear video evidence.
I have strong circumstantial evidence, but IMHO physical evidence is stronger than the testimony of one eye witness. Ideally, I would have videotape, or physical evidence plus a half-dozen eye witnesses... but if I'd known ahead of time that this was going to happen I could have confronted the guy.
I like the idea of catching him on video next time, but I don't have the means to do that. I may try to find out when they are coming back to this neighborhood and plan to be home that day.
Meanwhile, I can complain to whoever issued their business license, franchise, pesticide license, etc. If any of these are suspended for a while, they could lose a lot of customers when they can't fullfill their season-long lawn service contracts.
Yes. The laws elsewhere may be different. Naturally, this doesn't mean it's not worth investigating while there's still a smoking gun, so to speak.
Perhaps, but at most courthouses, there'll be a clerk who knows what he/she is talking about, and that person can provide the guidance necessary to get things on track quickly. I was lucky. The judge happened to be my son's baseball coach, so I didn't need a middleman for advice. He just said "do x, y and z and you're in business". He said the civil trespass laws were often interpreted to include all sorts of "lively objects" entering another person's property, like chemicals, stray baseballs, and especially dogs.
There *is* an immediate danger to health. A food crop has been contaminated with a chemical which cannot be demonstrated as safe.
A guess on your part, but it's a free country.
In my situation, the neighbor had been told several times that the spray company was being careless. The neighbor's response: "If the stuff's not safe, how come they're allowed to sell it?" In cases of stupidity, nothing works except a bucket of ice cold water, in a legal sense. You're right to say that the legal avenue should be a last resort. But, in order for a neighbor to understand the dangers of certain chemicals, they must possess a certain level of education and intellect. In my situation, this was not the case.
Although it won't help in your present dilemma, get in touch with your county & state legislators and see if anyone's already discussing the idea of forcing the lawn spray idiots to give neighbors 2-3 days' notice before they treat lawns. It's gone back and forth in my county legislature. Unfortunately, the chemical companies are still playing golf with the right people in government, but we're closing to having a law here.
At least in New Jersey, it's the state department of environmental protection that enforces pesticide and herbicide application regulations. When I was in college, I got a job for a while in the new Jersy Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Environmental Quality, Department of Pesticide Control in the Office of Enforcement as an inspector. Now that was a mouthful!!!!
Getting money from them isn't the point. The point is that they have to pay someone (not a lawyer) to go to small claims court and deal with the issue. This should result in a company-wide memo warning their sprayers to avoid gardens.
This will not only keep it from happening to you again, it'll help a whole lot of other gardeners.
A company wide memo telling the sprayers to be careful will help lots of people. The company suits don't want bad publicity, so they are very likely to hand down orders 'from on high'.
Nonsense. If the suits cared about these things, they'd hire people who can tell the difference between dandelions and zucchini. The best thing to do is keep the local franchise on edge with as much legal terror and bad publicity as possible. There is no other way. You're dealing with an industry which has no scruples.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.