“WHAT’S HAPPENING?”

University of Tennessee - Agricultural Extension Service

Entomology & Plant Pathology - EPP #60

Volume No. 2 - July 16, 2004

Fire Ant Presentations Mailed to All Agricultural Extension Agents

by Karen Vail, Pat Parkman and Tahir Rashid

All Agricultural Extension Agents should receive in Friday’s mail a CD, Extinguishing the Fire: How to Manage Fire Ants that contains six PowerPoint Presentations on fire ant impact, biology, and management. We thank Aurora Canaday, Pat Barnwell and Chely Christianson for burning and packaging the CDs for mailing. On Wednesday, July 14, 2004, Chase Pilkington, IT, and Joey Morton, E&PP, added these fire ant presentations to the UT Fire Ant Web Site (http://fireants.utk.edu) so they are now downloadable to Extension Agents. The slides should be self-explanatory. The slides generally follow our UT publications, Managing Imported Fire Ants in Urban Areas (PB1739) and Managing Imported Fire Ants in Agriculture (PB1740) which are also downloadable from our UT Fire Ant Web Site. These publications will also be available in print in the coming months. Should you need more information, please contact one of us.

The list of the 2004 imported fire ant quarantined areas for Tennessee was made available recently. A color map (http://fireants.utk.edu/FireantPNGImages/ifaq2004map.png) and list of IFA-quarantined counties (http://fireants.utk.edu/documents/quarantine2004.pdf)

provided by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture are available for downloading from the UT fire ant website under Updates/News. This map should replace the existing map in part 2 of the presentations. The downloadable presentations already include the 2004 map.

The Fire Ant Research and Education Team (FARET) would like to take this opportunity to thank James Taylor and Kevin Rose of Giles County, David Qualls of Lincoln County, cooperating growers and all summer support staff for their help in conducting fire ant research/demonstrations in pastures and Mark Halcomb, Area Extension Specialists, and Creig Kimbro, Grundy County, for assisting in surface treatments demonstrations in nurseries. Thanks to Ray Burden who has been instrumental in locating a release site for another biotype of decapitating fly.

We hope you will use these presentations as another fire ant information resource to better serve your constituents, and to help you become the fire ant expert in your county.

EPA Reopens Public Comment Period on Proposed Regulation Establishing Standards for Pesticide Containers and Containment

By Gene Burgess

EPA Reopens Public Comment Period on Proposed Regulation Establishing Standards for Pesticide Containers and Containment

EPA has reopened the public comment period on its proposed regulation establishing standards for pesticide containers and containment.

Comments must be submitted to EPA under docket ID number OPP-2004-0049 by August 16, 2004.

The original proposed rule was published on February 11, 1994, and a supplemental notice was published on October 21, 1999. Because significant time has passed since the publication of the proposed regulation, EPA is reopening the comment period to obtain public input on any issues or technology relating to the proposed requirements that would not have been available or could not have been addressed in the earlier comment periods.

The Federal Register notice announcing the reopening of the comment period and summaries of the major requirements of the proposed rule and supplemental notice will be available electronically at ttp://www.epa.gov/pesticides/regulating/containers.htm. For additional

information, please contact Nancy Fitz at 703-305-7385;

fitz.nancy@epa.gov. or Jude Andreasen, 703-308-9342;

andreasen.jude@epa.gov

LATE BLIGHT IN TENNESSEE AND A COMMENT ON THE SPRAY SCHEDULE

by Steve Bost

Late blight has recently been found in a tomato field in Grainger County in East Tennessee, and is also present in Western North Carolina. The tomato growing regions of East Tennessee and the Cumberland Plateau should consider themselves under an alert. If frequent thunderstorms continue and if persistent cloudiness accompanies them, late blight could cause significant problems.

What to do: Tomato growers who are not already on a once-per-week fungicide spray program should begin this practice. The use of mancozeb or chlorothalonil each week for general disease control is the best protection against late blight. Every other week, a strobilurin (Quadris or Cabrio) can be added, for additional early blight control. For fields in which late blight is present, a specialized fungicide such as Acrobat, Gavel, or Tanos can be added to the mancozeb, chlorothalonil, or strobilurin. For fields in which bacterial diseases are present (most of them fall into this category), copper or Actigard should be used in each application, in addition to the fungicides. These materials should have been used from the beginning, in alternation. An example would be Actigard + mancozeb followed by copper + mancozeb. It may be necessary to continue bacterial disease control through harvest.

If Botrytis gray mold becomes a problem, the new fungicide Endura can be added. With all of the new products for tomatoes, designing a spray program can seem daunting. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at 615-835-4573.

Precautionary Statement

To protect people and the environment, pesticides should be used safely.

This is everyone’s responsibility, especially the user.

Read and follow label directions carefully before you mix, apply, store or dispose of a pesticide.

According to laws regulating pesticides, they must be used only as directed by the label.

Persons who do not obey the law will be subject to penalties

Disclaimer Statement

Pesticides recommended in this publication were registered for the prescribed uses when printed. Pesticide regulations are continuously reviewed.

Should registration or a recommended pesticide be canceled, it would no longer be recommended by

The University of Tennessee.

Use of trade or brand names in this publication is for clarity and information; it does not imply approval of the product to the exclusion of others that may be of similar, suitable composition, nor does it guarantee or warrant the standard of the product.

The Agricultural Extension Service offers its programs to all eligible persons regardless of race, color, age, national origin, sex, veteran status, religion or disability and is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

COOPERATIVE EXTENSION WORK IN AGRICULTURE AND HOME ECONOMICS

The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture,

and county governments cooperating in furtherance of Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914.

Agricultural Extension Service Charles L. Norman, Dean