With California's consistent drought troubles, you'd think cities there would encourage residents to limit water use and replace resource-dependent lawns with native plantings and landscape structures. Not so in Alhambra, California, located in western Los Angeles County. According to an article written for the Alhambra Source, when Alexis Moreno and her husband stopped watering their lawn in order to repla ...

Among the many hazards posed by insecticide use is that of evolutionary pest resistance. Eventually, Mother Nature outsmarts us again, creating what are often called, "super bugs", that survive insecticide application. But it looks like the University of Florida has discovered a way to work with Ms. Nature. According to an article by Robert H. Wells in the University of Florida News, whiteflies- known for a ...

Although marketed as true, clean comfort, the truth is that cotton is one of the world's dirtiest crops, due to its heavy use of insecticides- the most dangerous form of pesticide to human and animal health. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 84 million pounds of pesticides were applied to the nation’s 14.4 million acres of cotton in the year 2000, and more than two billion pounds of fertilize ...

[caption id="attachment_3816" align="alignleft" width="288" caption="Until dry? . . . "][/caption] [caption id="attachment_3818" align="alignleft" width="288" caption="or 24 hours? . . . "][/caption] [caption id="attachment_3820" align="alignleft" width="288" caption="or 72 hours? The same product, 2,4-D, was applied in each case, yet the laws across the United States are terribly ambiguous. "][/caption] Th ...

Knapweed, leafy spurge, and other unwanted plants are growing fast and furious along the Wood River Trail in Blaine County, Idaho. But it's not pesticide application that will be taking care of the problem. Rather, the solution walks on four feet and goes, maaaaaa... A partnership between Blaine County's Pesticide Action Network and local citizens are piloting a project that will employ the use of 700 goats ...

Today Marks 10th Anniversary of Supreme Court Decision Search on-line on one of those this-day-in-history lists and you won't find my nomination for the MOST IMPORTANT THING THAT'S EVER HAPPENED on the 179th day of the year (not counting leap years). All sorts of other important stuff shares a June 28 anniversary. I didn't know, for example, that Labor Day became a federal holiday by an act of Congress on t ...

Today, California's Department of Pesticide Regulation announced it was awarding grants to two innovative projects meant to educate the public about the dangers of particular pesticides used around homes and schools. “Got Ants? Outreach to Reduce Risks from Pyrethroids to the Environment and Water Quality” aims to protect surface water quality by reducing residential use of pyrethroids- chemical compounds f ...

[caption id="attachment_3788" align="alignleft" width="526" caption="From the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service"][/caption] In Maine, where I lived for more than 50 years, Japanese beetle season was easy to remember . . . because it coincided each year with tourist season. In other words, when the cars came through the toll booths on July 4 weekend, we knew the Japanese beetles would soon ...

[caption id="attachment_3784" align="alignleft" width="548" caption="Blue grama grass is low-growing, drought-tolerant and ideal for low-maintenance lawns."][/caption] Some folks in the nation are desperate these days for any plant that will survive historic droughts. Others are just sick and tired of mowing their lawns by now, in late June, in areas where rainfall has been far above average. Therein lies t ...

Bringing attention to one of the more toxic substances sprayed on our food before it's shipped an average of 1,500 miles to our local grocery, this video is making the rounds on the Internet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exBEFCiWyW0&feature=feedf. Chlorpropham (bud nip) is a selective, systemic herbicide and plant growth regulator. Available in three forms — dusts, liquids and emulsifiable concentrates — ...