IPMA of Idaho - IPMA President's Message, September 2024

IPMA President's Message, September 2024

October 11, 2024 10:40 AM | Anonymous

We’re finally over the summer hump and it’s time that everyone can now breathe a big sigh of relief. It’s so refreshing to walk out of the house in the mornings and feel the ever so slight hint that fall is right around the corner. But it was, most definitely, a very busy summer for most since pest pressures seemed to be at an all-time high and continue to be persistent as we move into fall.

The IPMA board of directors hosted a mid-summer half day pest conference in Boise back in July. We had approximately 25 people in attendance with four hours of very informative presentations covering spider control strategies, rodent control options, pesticide formulation differences and a rules and requirements update from ISDA. I think we all feel that, even though we just had 25 people, this was a successful event and one that we will, most likely, continue in the years to come. We want to provide to the membership as many opportunities, as possible, to obtain CEU’s and we felt like an afternoon in the middle of summer might be a good excuse to beat the heat and knock out four hours.

Another opportunity to obtain CEU’s is fast approaching. Our fall/winter Pest Expo will be moving to November this year. It will be held, once again, at the Galaxy Event Center in Meridian on November 19^th and 20^th and on November 21^st in Twin Falls at the Canyon Crest Event Center. Ben Miller is currently working on an all-star lineup of speakers so plan ahead and get those dates added to your calendar. Conference registration information will be coming soon so keep an eye out for that.

We’re continuing to follow the proposed legislation against neonicotinoid insecticides with our west coast states. In addition to Nevada, who has already banned neonics completely inoutdoor/landscape applications, Washington has passed a law with modified, more restrictiveregulations for outdoor uses. It basically limits the amount of product one can use in a season along with the number of applications allowed. California has had proposed legislation in front of their legislatures for a few years now but can’t get anything to pass, as of yet. There will be revised proposal coming back in 2025. We’re hoping the delays in California will continue since this is a very important group of insecticides that we all rely on very heavy. I think we have some time here in Idaho but the more surrounding states to Idaho that have passed legislation makes it more and more difficult to fight when the time does come.

The California legislature is also at the forefront leading the fight to ban all first generation rodenticides such as Warfarin, Chlorophacinone, and Diphacinone. They banned all second generation rodenticides several years ago so the amount of effective products to control rodents is fastly disappearing. This proposal to ban first generation products will be a long hard fight for our industry leaders. More to come on that over the next year.

Hope to see you all at the November conference! Have a great fall.

Sincerely,

Pat Sherer

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