This week, I have spent two days in Columbus going through Ohio State University’s Pesticide Inservice, which helps prepare Extension educators on what to teach for pesticide recertification.
Pesticide recertification is a requirement for anyone who holds their restricted use pesticide license as a private applicator. These applicators must attend training every three years in core, which is the safe use of pesticides, and the categories they have on their license. I know what you’re thinking — pesticide training must be the most interesting topic farmers like to learn. That may not be true, but it is important to realize the dangers of using pesticides and the extreme problems with using them incorrectly. In this week’s Farm and Forest, I want to share a small activity that I have done for the last couple years at recertification to prevent spills.
This spill activity is a 15-minute session we do during Core. The first thing I focus on is where spills can occur during storage. I question the producers on what the characteristics of the area where they store their pesticides. Ideally, storage locations are temperature controlled so they do not freeze and have solid floors, such as concrete, so there is no way for pesticide to leach into the ground, and that they are locked.
I emphasize that we can also strategically place our pesticides with liquids close to the ground with solids stored above the liquids. If the liquid were to freeze or have a hole in the container, it would go straight into the ground rather than mixing on any solid container, causing a cross contamination.
Next, we talk about where spills could occur during the mixing of pesticides. First, I have the participants use a red Solo cup to act as if it was the tank they use for mixing. I have tricked every person who has done this activity, as I have put a tiny hole in the bottom of the cup, so when they add water, there is an instant leak. Luckily, for this activity, we use water and sugar instead of harmful substances. This emphasizes that we cannot skip steps and must always check our equipment.
We then talk about filling the “tank” up all the way or filling it up to 95 percent. Ideally, we do not want to fill the container all the way up, because what if we have a backpack sprayer with a bad seal? Where would that pesticide go? It would go down the applicator’s back, which is a big problem. If it is 95 percent full, it allows for some protection if there was a bad seal.
Lastly, we talk about cleaning the tank, where participants show me with the red Solo cup how to clean it. For pesticides, you should always triple rinse your containers, which means that you need to wash that container three different times. Research has shown that it reduces the residue and makes contamination minimal. So, what do we do with the water we used to clean the tank? Well, there are chemicals in it, but it is so diluted that we can either go and spray it out on the field or use it as water when we mixing the next tank.
For more information, feel free to give me a call at the Jackson County Extension Office at 740-688-5029.
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