CONTROLLING THOSE CRITTERS
Pesticides are further classified
based on their mode of action, or
the specific way in which a product
kills the target pest. For example,
horticultural oil suffocates the insect,
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a stomach
poison and neonicotinoids are neuroactive insecticides. Many products act
on specific physiological pathways
within the target organism and, like the
neonicotinoids, have more complicated
modes of action. The mode of action
is extremely important to know if you
are applying pesticides repeatedly to
a crop. It is possible for the pest to
develop resistance to a single mode
of action. For this reason you should
always rotate your pesticides between
multiple modes of action.
If you would like to learn more about
different modes of action or find out
what mode of action a product is, the
Insecticide Resistant Action Committee,
an international organization devoted
to reducing pesticide resistance, has
all the details at irac-online.org. The
site also lists all insecticides by active
ingredient and where they fall by
mode of action to enable you to rotate
products appropriately. There are many
examples of pesticide-resistant pests,
from whiteflies to weeds, and this is an
important issue in a production setting
as well as at home.
Because pesticide labels
“are
regulated by the
federal government, there
are several attributes of
a product that must be
listed on the label.”
important instructions
104
Maximum Yield USA | December 2015
Breaking Down the Label
The pesticide label is a federally
regulated legal document that is
required to be on every container
of product sold. There are different
registrations for agricultural versus
home use and there can also be statemandated labeling rules on top of
that. California, Washington and New
York have some of the strictest pesticide labeling laws and regulations,
and many pesticides take longer to
get registered in these states. Because
pesticide labels are regulated by
the federal government, there are
several attributes of a product that
must be listed on the label. Thanks
to this, deciphering pesticide options
becomes much easier.
One of the most helpful bits of information on a label, from a purchasing
standpoint, is the active ingredient,
or the substance that does the killing. This is usually found towards the
bottom of the front colored label on
the bottle. The active ingredient is
listed as a percentage, which allows