Pest Management Professional, May 2018

USFS TermiTicide rePOrT standard such as the Florida Termiticide Efficacy Rule 5e 20311 FAC or its own judgment of the USFS efficacy data on the product State lead agencies may also choose to make these decisions collectively through the Association of Structural Pest Control Regulatory Officials ASPCRO For the USFS annual termiticide reports the data in Tables 1 and 2 are presented for each site individually as evaluated using the EPA guideline and as an example of a state standard the Florida Rule individually by site and collectively across all southeastern sites Discussions of the differences between the two standards have been covered in many of the past annual reports PMP April 2016 and earlier For an explanation about the Table data see Where are the Tables p 73 Cleanup at the harrison experimental Forest The Harrison Experimental Forest has been in use by the USFS termiticide testing program since its inception in 1938 For 80 years our unit has been performing efficacy testing for soil applied termiticides termiticide impregnated barriers physical barriers and even some of the early attempts at area wide termite control using Mirex baits in the 1970s As has been discussed in previous reports this work takes up many acres of land which depending on the nature of the product tested may not be reused for testing purposes In 2017 our unit began a process of dismantling older studies that are no longer being evaluated see Fig 5 These studies consisted of older physical barrier tests that were not impregnated with termiticides Concrete blocks and barriers were removed from the study areas and hauled out of the forest in dumpsters Some of the concrete blocks could be reused for future studies of this type and were saved but the rest were sent to the landfill In total an estimated 8 tons of concrete and debris were removed from the forest over the course of a week in April 2017 see Figs 6 and 7 Clearing will continue in June 2018 As we reported in the 2005 report PMP Feb 2006 Hurricane Katrina damaged much of the forest canopy cover through treefall at the Harrison Experimental Forest While this only affected a few plots of our studies it encouraged a larger problem undergrowth see Fig 8 In the years that followed undergrowth grew quickly in areas where sunlight shone through the partial canopy These areas became thickly overgrown and often required days of clearing to install new plots and examine old ones It will be many years before new trees will reach canopy height and slow the process down This experimental forest is home to research on many fronts both within the USFS the Forest Genetics and Ecosystem Biology work unit SRS 4160 since 1954 and wood preservative studies conducted by the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison Wis since 1938 and with outside cooperators such as Mississippi State University Now that the termite unit in Starkville has merged with Durability and Wood Protection Research of the Forest Products Laboratory we have an increased need for clearing undergrowth on the Harrison Experimental Forest for new studies and collecting data on old studies Why did we remove the concrete The concrete prevents any type of mechanical clearing of 74 May 2018 Pest Management Professional mypmp net PhotoS USFS Fig 5 From left are Dr Juliet Tang Dr Thomas Shelton Blossie Boyd and Tina Ciaramitaro Fig 6 Team members load debris onto the tractor Fig 7 Each dumpster contained 4 tons of concrete debris for disposal