Stewardship! Vigilance!

Product stewardship is one way that we, as the professional pest management industry, can defend our uses of our tools and products. We must use our products in the most responsible manner that we know. This includes following the Surface Water Protection regulations with regards to pyrethroids and properly securing and locking up bait stations when using rodenticides. We comply with these rules even if no one is looking because where these products end up (either in the waterways for pyrethroids or in predators for anti-coagulant rodenticides) is being looked at with great scrutiny. 

AB 1687 (Bloom) is the bill to ban the use of rodenticides in the state of California. This has been extended to a two-year bill, meaning that we should not deal with it in 2017 but we should see it again in 2018. As an industry, we are doing anything that we can to oppose this bill in Sacramento. But there are things that the field can do across the state. We need to ensure that all places where these products are used they are used properly and in combination with monitoring blocks. If you have questions on how to integrate monitoring blocks into your program, do not hesitate to reach out to your distributor or manufacturer representative.

Surface water protection is another place where product stewardship is of the utmost importance. According to DPR, the monitoring detection numbers have not been decreasing, and that is being attributed to the professional’s industry non-compliance with the regulations. Whether we agree with the sentiment, the level of compliance across the industry is not where it should be according to DPR. This part of the conversation can be changed if we, as the professional industry, remove this factor from the argument and get compliance across the board.

We as an industry have had extra attention from our regulators. The more we can comply with the rules that are laid on us, the more weight we have in our discussions with them.

Darren Van Steenwyk, BCE
Legislative Committee Chair
LEED Green Associate
Technical Director
Clark Pest Control