Slag could limit wheat loss.(Vermin control)

A dusting of powdery white slag on our wheat fields could be enough to put pesky rabbits off eating our wheat. In the UK alone, rabbits cause an estimated 115m [pounds sterling] worth of damage to crops each year. But slag dust just might prove to be a cheap, environmentally sound and humane way to stop them.

Researchers from Central Science Laboratory applied slag (also called calcium silicate) to the soil of wheat plants growing in greenhouses. The plants use the silica in the slag to strengthen the defences in the leaves, by reinforcing the epidermis and growing spiky hair-like silica trichomes on the leaf surface. The result is that the leaves are more abrasive to …