Homeowners Adjusting to New Pesticide Era
       
       Auburn, March 17, 2003 --- Dealing with common home and garden pests will require 
consumers to learn more and fight smarter, especially now that they no longer can rely on the 
broad-spectrum pesticides many took for granted just a few years ago.  
       That is the advice of at least one pest expert who has spent the last few years helping 
consumers adjust to several key pesticides that already have been phased out following passage 
of the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996.
       The act, which imposes a strict ban on any pesticide product that may threaten human 
health, especially those of infants and children, already has resulted in the loss of two key home 
pesticides: Dursban and Diazinon.  
       But that was only the beginning. Orthene, another common home insecticide used for 
ornamental and turf insects, also is being phased out, though it still will be permitted for use on 
individual fire-ant mounds.  
       Much of this void already is being filled with new classes of insecticides that, while safe 
and, in most cases, highly effective, will require far more of the consumer.
       “They’re good products,” says Dr. Wheeler Foshee, an Alabama Cooperative Extension 
System pesticide education specialist.  “But they only control specific pests, and they’re not as 
effective over as long a period as many of the products that have been taken off the market.”
       Gone are the days when a consumer could apply a broad-spectrum pesticide in the yard, 
confident it would take out the undesired pests. The problem was that it often took out one or two 
nontargeted pests – some of which served a very useful purpose by preying on undesirable 
pests.
       The new products are more insect-specific, meaning that they are designed only to take 
out one species. That’s the good news. The bad news is that while they are safer for people and 
the environment, they often turn out to be a headache for consumers.  
       Some products, for example, have to be applied at a certain point during the insect’s 
growth cycle; otherwise the whole effort will be wasted.
	“What homeowners are beginning to find out is that if they’re really serious about taking 
responsibility for insect control around the home, they’re going to have to learn how to identify the 
types of pests in their homes and on their ornamentals and landscapes before they even can 
begin to determine which products are best suited to their situation,” Foshee says. 
	For the truly serious consumer, Foshee says there are other methods besides chemical 
control that place more importance on removing sources in the home and on the landscape that 
may attract unwanted insects in the first place. 
	“Insects are looking for three things: food, water and shelter,” Foshee says, “which 
means you can remove and manipulate some things in the homes and on the landscape that 
would make these areas less desirable habitats for potential pests.”
	“It could be as easy as placing mulch around tomato plants to ward off potential predators 
or planting insect-resistant varieties.”
	“Even fertilizing a lawn and watering it regularly keeps it healthy and more resistant to 
pests.”
	 A few broad-spectrum chemicals are still available, including malathion, widely used on 
ornamentals and turfgrasses, as well as pyrethroids, a family of pesticides that specifically are 
being marketed to fill the void left behind by some of the products that have been cancelled.
	Pyrethroids, which are a synthetic version of a chemical derived from chrysanthemums, 
are very safe for humans and do not linger for very long in the environment after application. 
	However, while they work very well in some cases, some experts are concerned that they 
will lose their effectiveness over time, as some insects can develop resistance to them.  
(Source: Dr. Wheeler Foshee, Extension Pest Education Specialist, 844-5509)