Pesticide certification training available
If most farmers will take a look in their wallet they hopefully will find a Private Applicators pesticide card.
This card is issued by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture every three years to those folks who have viewed some training videos and sent in the proper paperwork. If the card is in your wallet, look at the expiration date; it probably says October 21, 2008. All pesticide cards expire this fall unless you have been re-certified in the past few months.
Who needs a private applicators restricted pesticide card? Anyone who buys and uses pesticide that carries a Restricted Use Label.
Pesticides with restricted use labels that are commonly used in Warren County include Gramoxone, Attrazine, Bicep II, Dursban, Lorsban, Ambush, Astro, Warrior T, Dy-Syston, Surpass and others. In fact you can’t purchase these products unless you have a current private applicators card. Most folks that are going to put out a crop need a current pesticide card. Bring your card to the meeting that you attend. The pesticide re-certification meetings will be held in the Magnolia room in the front of the Warren County Administrative Building located on Locust St.
If you need a pesticide card you must be re-certified by Oct. 21.
I’ll have some more meetings in August and September, but why wait? If your card isn’t current or you need to be certified give me a call here at the Extension office (473-8484). Don’t get caught needing to buy restricted-use pesticides for your operation and find out you can’t.
The cost for the training is $30. Give us a call for more information.
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GRANT WORKSHOP FOR FARMERS
This coming Monday night, May 5, at 6:30 p.m. we have a cattlemen’s meeting at the Extension office. Wendy Lofton, of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, will be here to discuss the upcoming grant programs offered to farmers during the coming year.
Farmers in Warren County have invested over $2 million on their farms over the past year through these grant programs. This coming year grants will to offered to producers to purchase equipment for cattle handling facilities, feed storage, to improve cattle genetics, to build hay barns, purchase equipment for grain storage, and apply for funds to diversify your farm operation.
In this latest category there are funds for buying sprayers, irrigation equipment, greenhouse equipment, coolers and many other equipment for nursery, vegetables, even grape growing or for orchards.
Most of these grant programs are funded with a 35 percent cost share program. You buy the equipment that you request after you are approved, and then the Department of Agriculture will reimburse you for up to $3,500.
The grant for building a hay barn is one of the most popular programs across the state. Last year 44 barns were funded here in Warren County. The maximum cost share for a hay barn was $3,500 last year.
Grant applications will be available on the Web by May 5, and you can also pick up the applications at our meeting on May 5. All grants are approved on a first-come, first-served basis. The first application date is June 2 for most all the grant programs.
The cattlemen’s meeting Monday night will be the place to get the lowdown on all the state grants. The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. Don’t miss it.
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CARPENTER BEES PATROLLING
Carpenter bees have been very active the past week or so, and I’m getting several calls at the office about controlling this structural pest.
Quite often it is the male carpenter bee that we seen patrolling the area and they are unable to sting. The females are not aggressive, but may bite and sting if handled. Males are easily distinguished from females by their white marking on their face.
Carpenter bees are large bees similar in appearance to bumble bees, except the dorsal (top) surface of the abdomen is almost devoid of hairs and appears to be entirely black in the carpenter bee.
While carpenter bees are pollinators for several species of plants, they are considered pests when they bore into wood. A gallery for brood is excavated in weathered and usually unpainted wood, and the exit hole is a nearly perfect circular hole about an inch in diameter. These holes often appear as if they were made by a drill bit. The gallery initially extends straight from the opening, but soon makes a right angle turn to go with the grain of the wood. In the gallery the female lays an egg, provisions it with nectar and pollen and seals the cell with chewed wood pulp.
Galleries may contain six cells and are four to six inches long on average. However, because the galleries are reused and may be used by more than one bee, lengths of up to 10 feet have been reported. The new adults will appear in late summer.
Non-chemical or preventive controls include painting or varnishing wood surfaces. Individual bees can be caught with a net and killed or swatted with a badminton racket. Also, a flexible wire can be inserted into the hole to kill adult and larval bees, but the wire needs to be strong enough to break the wooden cells and flexible enough to make the right angle turn.
Insecticidal dusts can be puffed into nest holes in the evening when the carpenter bees are at rest. Insecticidal dust fills the void very well and will not soak into the wood as a liquid might. The bees should have access to the nest for 24 hours to allow them to spread the dust through the galleries. Then seal the hole with putty, dowel or cork to prevent re-infestation.
Carpenter bees over winter in previously used galleries, so the structure should also be inspected in the fall and any holes that may have formed should be treated and sealed.
Now that ought to be all anyone wants to know about Carpenter Bees, however Dr. Karen Vail, UT Extension Entomologist, who supplied me with all this information, is the author of a informative fact sheet on Carpenter bees and you can get one by calling the Extension office.