New uses for generic technologies and new technologies for niche markets

The Project Representatives met with the supervisor of San Diego County’s integrated pest control program. California has an additional ‘County’ layer of government which fits between the city and state government municipalities.

They are the regional government that provides health and justice services to all 3 million residents of San Diego County and municipal services to the county's unincorporated areas. Their pest department undertakes an extensive roadside spraying program of county roads with a fleet of aging tankers using Raven spray equipment and Radiarc spray heads.

We learnt a great deal about products and application equipment but one of the standouts is the use in California of an aquatic Imazapyr product called Habitat.

Habitat herbicide has received full label approval from EPA, labelled for the control of undesirable emergent, shoreline and woody wetland aquatic vegetation in and around standing and flowing water.

Habitat herbicide controls vegetation by affecting enzymes found only in plants, not in humans, animals, birds, fish or insects. It is readily absorbed through leaves, stems and roots and is translocated rapidly throughout plants, with accumulation in the meristematic regions. Treated plants stop growing soon after spray application. Necrosis becomes evident about two weeks after treatment. Time to death of treated weeds depends on size, species treated and weather conditions at application.

Habitat is a systemic herbicide that delivers down-to-the-roots aquatic and riparian weed control, enabling users to cost-effectively reclaim and maintain waterways and wetlands that have lost value to emergent invasive species.

As many roadside environments adjoin wetlands, environmentally sensitive areas or are classified as drainage systems this product would be of tremendous benefit to industry and the Australian public if made available in this country. With this in mind the active ingredient Imazapyr is off patent and the IVMP Technical Team will consider this active for inclusion in future trial work.

We have previously raised the issue with regard to the lack of funding to support expanded uses of generic technologies or new technologies for niche markets that are not big enough to be of interest to the chemical companies.

In such situations there are opportunities to seek off label special use permits. This offers vegetation managers a broader range of choices when trying to manage weed populations but the process can be time consuming and difficult to get approved.

So our question would be who should be doing the work required to ensure vegetation managers get access to the right tools to manage an every increasing range of weeds? We welcome your comments, questions and feedback.

The image gallery on the project website has photos from the visit to San Diego County.