ID Core | Applicator Competency Flashcards
Physical Control methods kill pests, disrupt their life cycle, or make the environment unfavorable. An example would be changing the temperature in a room.
True. Examples of physical control:
- Heat treatment for bed bugs
- Putting lights in the attic to keep bats from nesting there
⭐ Cultural Control disrupts the relationship between a pest and it’s host through routine management practices.
True. Examples of cultural control:
- Pruning plants
- Varying the time you plant crops
- Crop rotation
Genetic Control involves the use of parasites or predators to a pest.
False. Genetic Control involves creating or introducing animals and plants resistant to attack. Examples:
- GMO crops (Genetically modified organisms) that won’t be eaten by insects
- Sterilizing male flies and introducing them back into the population to mate with females who will later lay sterile eggs, meaning the fly population goes down
⭐ Biological Control involves the introduction or increase of parasites or predators to a pest.
True. Examples include:
- Introducing lady bugs to eat aphids.
⭐ Mechanical Control means building a machine to kill pests.
False. Mechanical Control means using screens, nets and fences to destroy pests or keep them out. Examples:
- Putting a screen over your attic vent to keep rats out
- Building a fence to keep deer away from a garden
- Putting a mesh bag over apples tree branches to keep insects off the fruit
Legal Control means preventing people from becoming pesticide applicators if they have a criminal history.
False. Legal Control means making rules to control human activities. Example:
- Setting up quarantine zones to prevent the spread of pests
Chemical Control involves using pesticides to kill, attract, repel, or change pests.
True. Examples include:
- Rodenticides to kill rodents
- Herbicides to kill weeds
- Insecticides to kill insects
- And many more!
⭐Pesticide drift can be reduced by spraying upwind from a sensitive area in winds under 5mph.
False. Reduce drift by spraying large droplets of product. Avoid fine mists that float along the breeze. Spray in winds of 5mph or less.
⭐Emulsifiable concentrates need constant agitation.
False. These milky white liquids mix well with water, are easy to transport, and don’t clog sprayers. They don’t need to be shaken to stay emulsified. They’re easy!
⭐Emulsifiable concentrates are very concentrated oil-based products, meaning you only need a small amount of product mixed into your sprayer.
True. Because they’re so concentrated…
- ⭐You don’t have much margin for error when mixing ⭐
- ⭐They’re easily absorbed into human skin⭐
- They’re flammable
- They can damage painted surfaces and cause corrosion
Soluable powders and wettable powders both dissolve in water
False.
Soluable powders DO dissolve in water. Imagine stirring sugar into hot coffee until the sugar dissolves.
Wettable powders DON’T dissolve in water. Your tank must be agitated constantly to prevent settling. They tend to clog sprayers. Imagine stirring flour into your coffee and it clumping on the bottom of your cup.
A disadvantage of dust pesticide is that it drifts around easily
True. It blows around a lot!
Ultra-low volume applications are safer than high volume applications.
False. Ultra-low volume sprays use very little water, meaning you’re spraying a very small amount of product. This means that the product is VERY concentrated and therefore more dangerous if it comes into contact with human skin or drifts to a non target area.
⭐ Microencapsulated pesticides have active ingredient encapsulated in a tiny capsule which slowly releases the active ingredient over time.
True. ⭐They last a really long time and the re-entry interval is longer for applicators. ⭐They pose a special risk to pollinators since a bee can carry the product back to the hive by accident when collecting pollen.
All pesticide applicators in the State of Idaho can apply fumigants.
False. Fumigants are the most hazardous form of pesticides the EPA has placed special regulations on who can purchase and apply these products.
⭐The WALE method of pesticide mixing helps you remember the order for adding products into your tank.
Start with a half a tank of water, then add…
1. Wettable powders and granules
2. Agitate to mix
3. Liquid pesticides
4. Emulsifiable concentrates
…Top off with water
True. Note that the W in WALE doesn’t stand for “water” despite it being the first step which is very confusing!
⭐Memorize the WALE steps⭐
⭐Having a mixture of pesticides clump, create globules, or separate into layers are all examples of a compatible mixture.
False. Clumps, globules, or separating into layers are all examples of INcompatible pesticide mixtures.
⭐Incompatible mixtures don’t mix well together physically ⭐
⭐When a pesticide mixture looks incompatible (globules, clumps, separation of layers) it can lose effectiveness and increase hazards to people and animals.
True.
⭐If you’re mixing two pesticides together for the first time you should perform a small mixing test in a clear jar before making a large batch in your tank.
True. Use the WALE method to ensure you add products in the right order.
⭐An adjuvant is a product added to rodenticide to make it taste better to rats.
False. ⭐An adjuvant is an additive that modifies a pesticide’s physical properties to enhance performance. They’re most commonly used on foliage to get the pesticide product to stick properly on the leaves.⭐
Surfactants, stickers, penetrants, thickening agents, and safeners are all examples of adjuvants.
True. For example a thickening might be added to a crop spray to reduce drift.
All formulations with the same active ingredient carry the same signal word.
False. Some formulations are more hazardous than others. For example a fumigant is much more hazardous than a granule.
The safest way to dispose of a pesticide is to rinse it down the drain.
False. Follow the label instructions. The label is the law!
⭐Every pesticide must include a signal word.
True.
⭐- ☠️ DANGER POISON with a skull and crossbones = Highly toxic
⭐- WARNING = Moderately toxic
⭐- CAUTION = Slightly toxic
An EPA registration number is only required for pesticides that carry the skull and crossbones symbol and the signal word DANGER POISON
False. All pesticides have an EPA registration number on the label.
⭐The following are examples of “Precautionary Statements” found on a pesticide label:
- Route of Entry (mouth, skin, lungs)
- Specific Action (do not get in eyes, avoid breathing dust)
- Protective Clothing (wear tightly fitted goggles when applying overhead)
True. ⭐There are three main types of precautionary statements found on labels. You might find all three types or none at all depending on the product.⭐
- Route of Entry
- Specific Action
- Protective Clothing
A pesticide label has a Route of Entry statement that reads “Fatal if swallowed. Corrosive severe skin burns.” You would expect this label to have the signal word “CAUTION.”
False. The signal word would be DANGER POISON ☠️ because it is potentially fatal. The word CAUTION indicates a product is only slightly toxic.
⭐You’ve ingested a pesticide. The poison control hotline is the only resource for getting information on the right type of medical care.
False. The label contains a section called ⭐”Practical Treatments”⭐0 that outlines medical care for poisoning emergencies. Physicians and field staff can refer to this section for help.
⭐General environmental statements appear on most pesticide labels. They are common sense instructions like “do not contaminate water” and “do not apply when bees are in the area.”
True. Preventing water pollution, limiting drift, and protecting pollinators are all common sense instructions on almost every pesticide label.
The re-entry interval (REI) tells you how much time must pass before people can reenter a treated area without wearing PPE.
True.
If a pesticide label doesn’t state a re-entry interval, people can walk through a pesticide application immediately.
False. Always wait until sprays have dried and dusts have settled.
⭐The “Directions for Use” section of a label is the longest portion of the label and provides extensive instructions on:
- Type of pests you can treat
- How much product to use
- Where and when you can use the product
- Equipment for applying product
- And much more!
True.
⭐The pre-harvest interval is a suggestion made by a pesticide manufacturer.
False. The EPA sets pre-harvest intervals to make sure a pesticide has broken down to safe levels before food is harvested and eaten by people.
Labels should be removed from pesticide containers and kept in a notebook so they remain clean and legible.
False! Never remove a pesticide label. Keep copies in your safety binder.
⭐An active ingredient often has many names:
- The chemical compound’s technical name (1-naphthyl N-nethyl cabamate)
- A common name (Carbaryl)
- Product or brand names that contain that ingredient (Sevin 50WP Insect Killer)
True. Know the difference between a technical name, a common name, and a product name.
A General Use Pesticide can be sold to the general public because it does not pose a large risk to the public.
True. General Use Pesticides are widely available to everyone.
A Restricted Use Pesticide has a high potential to harm the public and can only be sold to people with a pesticide license.
⭐There are six major components to IPM (integrated pest management)
1. Pest identification
2. Monitoring pest numbers and damage
3. Guidelines for when management is needed
4. Prevention
5. Combining biological/cultural/physical/mechanical and chemical control
6. Assessing your results
True. You must be able to count and monitor the pest to assess your results.
⭐The Economic Injury Level or Economic Threshold helps you compare the cost of pest damage to the cost of pest control. When you reach that level it makes sense to control the pest vs doing nothing.
True. For example, losing 1% of your crop to insects may be acceptable but losing 10% of your crop may be more expensive than hiring a pest control applicator to spray your field. You’ve reached the Economic Threshold to take action.
All pesticides kill only the target pests.
False.
⭐The goal of all pest management programs is to eradicate the pest.
False.
⭐A systemic pesticide is absorbed into the plant and moved around through the root and leaves. This process is known as translocation.
True. Systemic insecticides provide coverage on the entire plant, not just the leaves it’s applied to.
Herbicides are pesticides.
True.
