Browse Commercial Pesticide Stories - Page 2

This time of the year gardeners get excited about their soon-to-be-planted spring vegetable gardens. They envision lush rows of perfect pods of peas, scrumptiously delicious sweet corn and big, beautiful tomatoes. University of Georgia Extension urges gardeners to wait and put some thought and vision into their garden first.

With reports of declining monarch butterfly populations and honeybee deaths, the plight of pollinators and other beneficial insects has been headlining the news for months now.

Complaints over off-target movement of chemical applications went down 48 percent from 2014 to 2015, but Georgia farmers must better understand the factors that influence drift, according to University of Georgia weed scientist Stanley Culpepper.

A tiny fly is having a huge impact on American fruit farmers. Known as spotted wing drosophila, the insect is costing famers more than $700 million a year in lost produce and prevention costs.

Women own 13.6 percent of America’s active farms and their farms produce almost $13 billion worth of goods each year. Just like male farmers, they need access to business and technical information to help make their farms successful. But while many pride themselves on not needing a “women’s only” class on how to work the land or run a business, many other women simply feel more comfortable learning around other female farmers.

Pesticides can be helpful in controlling insects and diseases, but there are chemicals that should be handled with care. To educate pesticide users, University of Georgia Extension has planned pesticide safety and handling classes in Albany, Savannah and Perry this February and March.

Georgia residents can safely dispose of old pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and other chemicals at the Clean Day, set for Thursday, Nov. 12, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the Brooks County Extension office in Quitman, Georgia.

Georgia will definitely be on the minds of the estimated 90,000 people that will flock to this year’s Sunbelt Ag Expo in October.

Nearly 60,000 pounds of unwanted or out-of-date pesticides were collected for disposal through the Clean Day event held Feb. 27, 2013 in 21 southwest Georgia counties.

A butterfly and container garden workshop will be offered Wednesday, May 28 from 9 a.m. until noon at the University of Georgia Research and Education Garden off Ellis Road in Griffin.