How does flooding impact weed management?
The frequency of heavy precipitation in the US has increased over the past few years and is projected to continue increasing for the unforeseeable future. In fact, ‘torrential rain’, ‘downpour’, and‘flash flood’ are common terms used in weather alerts that help the public prepare for potential flooding. For farmers, the threat of flooding is unwelcome […]
How Does DroughtAffect Vegetation Management?
A drought is atemporary reduction in water or moisture below the expected or normal amounts for some time. A drought can be short, lasting a few weeks to one or two months, or long, lasting for years.The occurrence of drought has become common today as we witness incidences of severe weather events related to global […]
Adjuvants 101: Agricultural Surfactants Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Agricultural surfactants are chemical products that are commonly used today to improve performance, yet 70 years ago they were hardly mentioned. A surfactant, orSURFace ACTing AgeNT, is a type of adjuvant that is designed to improve the dispersing/emulsifying, absorbing, spreading, wetting, sticking, and penetrating properties of a pesticide spray mixture. An adjuvant is an ingredient […]
How Does Water Quality Affect Pesticide Effectiveness?
When the application of a pesticide fails to deliver the desired control of a pest, the immediate thoughts are that something is wrong with the pesticide or there is pesticide resistance. However, the cause may be due to a different reason, water quality. Water is the most common ingredient in pesticide applications. Water is an […]
Why is Vegetation Management in Rights of Way Important?
Every year during the summer months, there is a major battle going on everywhere that plants grow. That battle is simply referred to as vegetation management. Vegetation management is waged by a variety of personnel, ranging from homeowners trying to get rid of unwanted vegetation to forest rangers attempting to limit the vegetation that provides […]
How to Prevent Fish Kills in Ponds
Fishing is an important part of human culture whether it be for food or recreation. There is always some fishing going on somewhere in the country every day of the year, regardless of the weather. Encountering dead fish floating around in a pond, or fish kill would no doubt cause concern. What is fish kill? […]
The Importance of Forest Vegetation Management
Forests make up 33% or 747 million acres of the US and play an important part in the environment and our livelihoods. Today, when forests are mentioned, it is usually in connection with forest fires. Other times, we rarely think about forests even thoughthey are extremely vital for our existence and must be protected. Within […]
How to Improve Pesticide Solution pH Using Buffering Agents
When a pesticide is applied to control a pest according to label instructions it may not work as expected. When it doesn’t work, the assumption may range from a highly complex one, such as in the occurrence of pesticide resistance, toa simple one, such as the pesticide spray water being at the wrong pH. Pesticide […]
Pesticide Resistance Management
When a pest becomes resistant to a pesticide, the resistant pest can become a serious threat to our livelihoods, especially when the pesticide it is resistant to is the most widely one used for control. One example is glyphosate. Glyphosate (Roundup) was first marketed in the 1970s as a nonselective herbicide. With little herbicide resistance […]
The Importance of CalibrationforPesticide Application
Pesticide application is a work of precision that is essential to successful pest management and our livelihood. Millions of dollars go towards research to determine the application rate of a pesticide for a particular pest situation. Precise rates of pesticides must be applied to provide effective pest control. Effective pest control depends on the correct […]
