Landscape and Turf Maintenance
By Dr. Eileen Buss
sat in on an interesting discussion at
the National Entomological Society of
America meeting. The room had some
of the "greats" in insecticide toxicology and pesticide resistance, product
manufacturers and other entomologists
like me. There were talks on the uses, advantages and disadvantages of simultaneous
pesticide combinations in integrated pest
management strategies. Some of the highlights are outlined below, but first let me
define a few terms according to the Insecticide Resistance Action Committee
(IRAC) as the terminology is confusing
and certain words mean different things to
different people.
I
12 Landscape and Irrigation April 2013
Pesticide combinations: Applications
of two or more compounds to the same
pests at the same time. Specific examples
are tank mixes and premixes.
Tank mix: A mixture of two or more
products (they don't just have to be insecticides) on site or on a mix/load pad by an
applicator. Each product is often applied at
a high labeled rate. Sometimes a "tank
mix" may be thought of as mixing one
product with water in a tank, but that is
not how I'm using the term in this article.
Premix: A commercial product containing two or more active ingredients. At
Why would anyone use a combination
of products rather than just applying one
product at a time? There can be pros and
cons, either way. The most common reason
to combine pesticides is to kill more pests
with one application. Many of the newer
insecticides have fewer target pests (are
"narrow-spectrum") and may have different routes of entry (contact vs. plant systemic), so if you apply two or more at one
time, then you have a more "broadspectrum" treatment. Other benefits may
include reducing transportation costs (if
you kill most pests initially, there may be
fewer call-backs), such as saving on fuel,
reducing the amount of packaging, decreasing possible turf injury from repeated
traffic or soil compaction, and decreasing
the spread of disease or pests on equipment. Client satisfaction (at least in agriwww.landscapeirrigation.com
Photo provided by Syngenta
Clarifying and
Magnifying Concepts
in the Pesticide Industry
least one active ingredient is usually applied at a lower rate than if used alone.
This "premix" category is different from
the use of something like water-soluble
packaging of a single insecticide.
