Canada to cancel certain products or uses of insecticide carbaryl

The Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) has proposed to cancel certain products or uses of the insecticide carbaryl, as certain products or uses pose risks of concern to human health and do not meet Health Canada's current standards for human health protection.The following products or uses will be cancelled:

• All domestic class products
• Commercial application of carbaryl in residential settings including ornamentals, vegetable gardens and fruit trees in residential areas
• All turf applications in commercial and residential areas, including lawns, sod farms and golf courses
• Various crops (alfalfa, apples (insecticide use), apricot, barley, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, cherries, clover, corn (sweet & field), grapes, kale, oats, peach, pears, peppers, plums, prunes, rye, snapbeans (hand harvest only), strawberries, sweet white lupin, wheat); and
• Balsam fir, spruce, farm woodlots, municipal parks and rights-of-way for control of spruce budworm.

Carbaryl is a broad spectrum Resistance Management Group 1A (carbamate) insecticide. In Canada, it is registered to control a wide range of arthropod pests including beetles, moths, fleas, flies, lice, mites, sawflies, crickets, earwigs, grasshoppers, millipedes, sow bugs, thrips, ticks and cockroaches. It is also registered for use in apple thinning.

Carbaryl is used on both agricultural and non-agricultural sites including feed crops, industrial oil seed and fibre crops, livestock, greenhouse tobacco seedlings, companion animals, structures, forestry, food crops, turf, lawns and ornamentals. It is applied by both ground and aerial equipment.