[Legislative Update] Rosenberg, NPMA Look to the Future

NPMA Says Recent EPA Initiative on Rodenticides Further Promotes Protection of Public Health

On Jan. 30, EPA announced its intent to cancel the registration of certain do-it-yourself rodent control products. The affected products are sold to consumers as loose baits and don’t have protective bait stations that prevent access by children and pets.

In the works for more than a decade, the mandate will remove products from the market that pose unacceptable risks to children, pets and wildlife — an effort supported by NPMA.

“Rodents pose a significant public health risk. They carry more than 200 human pathogens and rodent droppings are proven asthma triggers in children and adults. Further, rodents are estimated to bite 50,000 people each year,” said Bob Rosenberg, executive vice president of NPMA. “The EPA restrictions will prohibit the use of potentially dangerous loose baits and products that pose risks to wildlife when misused by people who are untrained and unlicensed to ensure their safe application, but will reserve the rights for use by professionals when needed. This important decision underscores the need for professionalism in treatment and allows the pest management industry to retain the means for providing effective, affordable services that protect consumers from rodent-borne dangers.”

For more information regarding the EPA and its most recent decision, visit www.epa.gov. (Source: NPMA)

Pyrethroid Label Requirements Tweaked Again By Mike Merchant

Editor’s Note: The following article appeared on Mike Merchant’s blog, “Insects in the City,” which can be found at insectsinthecity.blogspot.com. The blog offers readers news and commentary about the urban pest management industry and is excerpted here with permission of the author.

Last year, I posted a story about the new pyrethroid insecticide label requirements being sent to pesticide manufacturers by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The requirements were designed in 2009 to reduce the risk of drift (wind-carried contamination) and runoff (stormwater-carried contamination) of these commonly used insecticides. Since last spring, when pesticide manufacturers were officially informed of the new standards, EPA has continued to dialog with both regulators and the pest control industry. The results of this dialog are now out, and the final product is a big improvement, in my opinion.

At issue were applications needed to control certain overwintering insects like the brown marmorated stink bug and kudzu bug, both of which aggregate on the sides and eaves of structures prior to entering the home or other buildings. Under the 2009 rules, outdoor applications to the sides of structures were limited to crack and crevice applications or building foundations up to a height of three feet only. In addition, all outdoor applications to impervious surfaces such as sidewalks, driveways, patios, porches and structural surfaces (such as windows, doors and eaves) were to be limited to spot and crack-and-crevice applications, only.

After consultation with NPMA, the Association of Structural Pest Control Regulatory Officials (ASPCRO) and the State FIFRA Issues Research and Evaluation Group (an EPA advisory group also comprised of regulatory officials), EPA agreed to make further changes to the original label requirements to allow for more effective control of overwintering insects.

While restrictions on insecticide applications to impervious surfaces and prior to expected rainfall have not changed, there are some big changes on applications to structures, as published in a Jan. 10 letter to pesticide manufacturers (see bit.ly/WupfbC). The three changes are summarized as follows:

• Now applications of pyrethroids may be made to the exterior of buildings where the treated surfaces are underneath eaves, soffits, windows or doors that are protected by coverings, overhangs, awnings or other structures that protect the residues from rainfall;
• application bands up to 1 inch-wide may be applied to cracks or other potential pest entry points;
• and applications may be made using a coarse, low-pressure spray to portions of surfaces that are directly above bare soil, lawn, mulch or other vegetation.

The purpose of these requirements is to prevent pyrethroid pesticides from entering storm water and getting into streams, something that is most likely when pyrethroid sprays land on impervious surfaces like asphalt or concrete.

In addition to giving back to PMPs the ability to use pyrethroids against overwintering pests, these new regulations should help applicators control nuisance and public health mosquitoes that frequently rest on the sides of buildings and around doorways. This was, in my view, a potentially serious public health issue that existed with the 2009 rules.

So what will be the big change to the way your company applies pyrethroids after the dust is all settled? The new labels will prohibit power spraying driveways and over sidewalks, garage doors and any vertical building surfaces over pavement. Assuming the manufacturers follow these guidelines closely, labels should allow low-pressure sprays to the sides of structures over vegetation or soil and in sites protected from the rain, in addition to cracks and crevices.

Congratulations to the EPA and to those regulators and NPMA experts who took the time to look for ways to keep the pyrethroid label requirements reasonable while continuing to protect the environment. This is one of those examples of how the system sometimes works in everyone’s favor — except, in this case, the pests’.