Recently, I participated in The Pesticide Stewardship Alliance’s 25th annual conference. The Ag Container Recycling Council (ACRC) had an exhibitor booth and explained what the ACRC does. In their 33 years of service to U.S. growers and custom applicators, they have collected over 257,000,000...

For many, spring is an opportunity to deep clean and organize homes, offices and other areas that have become cluttered over the winter and previous year. Your pesticide storage areas shouldn’t be overlooked. A well-organized and maintained pesticide storage area will help to save time and money...

In 2024, 241 pesticide misuse complaints were filed with the Illinois Department of Agriculture. Of those, 202 cases have been completed (reviewed and closed or an enforcement action taken) as of early April 2025. Of those completed cases, 103 were closed and no evidence of misuse was found....

Do you still need to obtain your Illinois pesticide applicator or operator license? Now that the in-person pesticide safety education clinics have concluded, you may be wondering what your options are for training and testing. See below to get you well on your way to becoming certified.Training...

As spring continues to warm up and weeds and insects increase in abundance, demand for management of these populations will continue to grow. Along with pest insects and flowering weeds, bees, wasps, butterflies, and flies will also begin to emerge as essential pollinators in many systems. While...

There are several pesticide related bills being considered in the Illinois Senate and House currently. We’ve been told that action will need to be taken on many of these in the next couple of weeks if they are to become laws. Some have previous versions that were introduced in past years and will...

The Western corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera) is often considered the most damaging pest to U.S. corn. While the adults can cause issues in pollination through clipping silks, the most destructive life stage is the larvae, who live below ground and feed on corn roots. Larval...

Do your pesticide applications fall under the scope of the EPA’s Worker Protection Standard (WPS)? If so, you should take a few minutes to review recent changes to the Application Exclusion Zone (AEZ) requirements. Let’s start by reviewing what the AEZ is and its purpose. The EPA introduced...

On January 1, 2025, a new law went into effect that could affect Illinois’ pesticide applicators working in rights-of-way areas. The Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) has been tasked with writing the rules and has recently created a...