by
Government Affairs Team
| Jul 10, 2018
GCSAA's government affairs department closely monitors the Federal Register to see what active ingredients used on golf courses are undergoing Registration Review at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Under Registration Review, the agency will review each registered pesticide at least every 15 years to determine whether it continues to meet the FIFRA standard for registration.
GCSAA most recently submitted public comment on the ongoing imidacloprid risk assessment in April. On Dec. 15, 2017, EPA released a preliminary ecological risk assessment for imidacloprid, assessing risks to birds, mammals, non-target insects, and plants. EPA asked for substantive comment on the benefits of imidacloprid as it relates to the non-pollinator ecological risk assessment.
As part of the open public comment period, GCSAA also offered a webinar to help members submit their own benefits comments to the agency. Several GCSAA members who participated in the webinar submitted comments to the public docket.
The dockets for all the neonicotinoid pesticides is open. The goal of the agency is to review the pesticides in this class in the same timeframe so it can ensure consistency across the class. As EPA completes risk assessments for the neonicotinoids, the agency will pursue risk mitigation, as appropriate. Review the neonicotinoid pesticide schedule.
Imidacloprid is applied to turfgrass as a liquid spray, in granular form or impregnated onto a granular fertilizer. Turf application equipment includes spray booms of less than 2 feet in height for liquid applications, and drop- and rotary-spreaders for granular forms and impregnated fertilizer. On ornamentals, imidacloprid may be applied as a soil treatment (liquid drench, granular, or tablet) or foliar spray.
Imidacloprid is a critical tool for golf courses that is needed to control white grubs and other insect pests that can have a high economic impact for direct damage recovery costs as well as loss of revenue. The effectiveness of product, its breadth of activity and utility in controlling difficult pests would be hard to replace.