Shire gets steamed up over weeds

Dardanup Shire Council will test the effectiveness of steam as a way of controlling weeds as an alternative to traditional chemical herbicides during this year.

Contractor Cape Life applied the first of up to four steam weed treatments on May 18 and the council will continue to investigate the practice during the next 12 months.

Dardanup shire environmental officer James Kain said the costs of steam weed control were comparative with traditional chemical methods when carried out in an urban environment and in addition provided a number of social and environmental benefits.

He said steam weeding applications were unaffected by wind and rain and can therefore be carried out at any time.