On June 12, 2018, the Scientific Review Panel on Toxic Air Contaminants (SRP) unanimously approved the California Department of Pesticide Regulation’s (DPR) staff report that will list chlorpyrifos as a toxic air contaminant. According to their report, chlorpyrifos may pose a public health risk as a toxic air contaminant based on its assessment of the [...]
UC Scientists worked with CCQC to receive a Section 18 for the use of Bactericides against HLB infection. Once that goal was achieved, the team drafted an advisory recommending that Southern California Citrus growers begin using Bactericides as part of their treatment program. Their recommendation states and CCM concurs, that growers should do a minimum [...]
The California Association of Pest Control Advisers (CAPCA) hosted its 2018 Spring Summit on April 24 – 25 in Temecula. Summit attendees toured UC Riverside's citrus grove and experiment station and learned about the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) mitigation standards for bulk citrus movement, scouting techniques, identification, and management strategies. With more than 500 HLB-positive trees [...]
Bloom season is coming to an end which means counties are declaring 75 percent petal fall. The announcement of petal fall lifts the restrictions of applications to citrus groves with materials toxic to honeybees. This will allow the citrus grower to apply the necessary pesticides to protect their crop from insect pests. The following counties [...]
CCM received a briefing regarding the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS’s) Biological Opinion (BiOp) for chlorpyrifos last week from the coalition working to maintain chlorpyrifos registrations CCM has belonged to since 2014. The EPA has asked for public comment for the BiOp which has important implications for the future regulation of all pesticides. The BiOp [...]
The following article was originally posted on the Citrus Insider Website. To protect commercial citrus from Huanglongbing (HLB), it is critical to keep Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) populations in groves as low as possible. While there has been a significant amount of monitoring and preventative ACP treatment in Kern County, the San Joaquin Valley ACP/HLB [...]
Once again, citrus has avoided the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) Dirty Dozen list. The EWG has been putting together this Dirty Dozen list since 2004 and ranks fruits and vegetables based on pesticide contamination. This list continues to scare consumers into thinking their fresh produce is unsafe even though the USDA and FDA sampling data [...]
Bloom season is underway and for citrus, this establishes the beginning of a time period when the use of insecticides is greatly restricted in citrus groves. As 10% bloom is declared in each district, all citrus growers, pest control operators, and beekeepers must comply with the regulations covering the citrus/bee protection areas (section 6654 and [...]
This week CCM and the California Citrus Quality Council submitted joint comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding neonicotinoid insecticides. The neonicotinoid insecticides, which include imidacloprid, clothianidin, thiamethoxam, and dinotefuran, are going through registration review. Imidacloprid and thiamethoxam are very important to the citrus industry and Citrus Mutual has been aggressive in defending the [...]
The decision last year by EPA Administrator Pruitt not to issue a registration decision canceling the label for Chlorpyrifos was met by an outcry from the activists and a legal response by several state attorney generals. (Surprise – California being one) CCM met with a senior attorney for the filing and strongly cautioned the office [...]