Rescue Treatments Of Methyl Bromide In Demand

Posted by Paul Rusnak|June 1, 2014

The long and arduous phase-out of methyl bromide has been a process of often frustrating situations tied up in international politics. In recent years, the availability of the fumigant has been virtually zero and it’s beginning to show up in fields.

Mike Aerts
Photo by Paul Rusnak

During the 2013 Florida Ag Expo, Mike Aerts, FFVA’s director of marketing and membership, addressed the potential of obtaining a critical use exemption (CUE) for methyl bromide to rescue fields where weeds and other pests are building up in the absence of the fumigant.
“The word we are hearing from the production sector is that very often there are some exceedingly difficult problems managing pests in fields where methyl bromide alternatives have been used for a number of years in a row,” said Aerts.

Because of these problems, FFVA is leading a request for a new CUE for these troubled fields. Based upon a grower survey, the exemption request will cover 9,615 acres in Florida and will include tomatoes, strawberries, peppers, and eggplants.
“To specify the application process even more, we made sure only one formulation would be applied for — 66:33 — which will take the guess work out of what will be available,” said Aerts.
“To meet the criteria, you must document a couple of things,” he continued. “First, you have to document that you have been using alternatives, which shouldn’t be a problem at all. Second, and maybe a little tougher, you have to document you are losing the ability to control key pests in the field to the point where it is an unsustainable situation.”

As of this posting, it appeared the governing body that distributes CUEs would be paring back available methyl bromide even further. In fact, pre-plant allocations had been limited only to California strawberries in 2014-2015 and various postharvest applications.
All other applications, including Florida’s, were deemed not to have enough supporting evidence to warrant a CUE.
Aerts said Florida would make another application for a CUE in 2015-2016, but cautioned CUEs are becoming extremely difficult to obtain.