If you are not aware, EPA has been petitioned to revoke all tolerances and cancel all associated registrations for food uses of multiple (pretty much all) organophosphate pesticides. This would include acephate (orthene), diazinon, malathion, naled (dibrom) and others. This would eliminate our last broad spectrum soil insecticide in vegetables (diazinon; I do not consider the pyrethroids to be as broad spectrum) and would impact diverse areas of pest management including choices for control of multiple insect pests, management of tomato spotted wilt in peanuts, and defoliation in cotton.

The EPA has extended the comment period for this petition until September 25. If organophosphates are important to your production program, please submit your comments to EPA. When submitting comments be specific. Don’t just say they are critical, say why they are critical. Tell them why you use them, how you use them, when you use them, rates used, and alternatives or lack there of.

To submit comments, go to Regulations.gov. In the search bar type “organophosphates” and hit the search button. When the search opens, click the box on the left that says “Only show documents open for comment”. That should get you to the “Petition To Revoke Tolerances and Cancel Registrations for Certain Organophosphate Uses”. Click the “Comment” button and it will open to the comment page. You can type you comments directly or submit them as an attached file.

This petition is basically based on the approach that since chlorpyrifos was deemed worthy of cancellation and all OPs have the same mode of action, then all OPs should be cancelled. FYI, the carbamates (Lannate, Vydate, etc.) also share this mode of action. My crystal balls says that if this approach works against the OPs it will be used for the carbamates next.

Posted in: