TECHNICAL
If there are none, then it seems we are left pretty much where we are - frustrated turf managers
exploring ineffective or legally questionable treatments
the lifecycle of worms - quite a challenge when the product you would want approval for does the absolute opposite! We need to remember the benefi ts worms bring to the health of soils, and it’s for this reason they are protected under the regulations and that’s why products being approved for use have to show they do not pose a risk to the health of worms.
How about an emergency approval (like we saw with Acelepryn - for the control of
leatherjackets and chafer grubs), but the control of worm casting? As I write this, I’m not aware of any approved product in the turf industry overseas or in any other industry, such as agriculture, being used that would off er a solution for the control of worm casting on turf and so there doesn’t appear to be any obvious solution in terms of a candidate for emergency approval. Hasn’t a chemical company been developing a product knowing the market is in need of a solution? With turf plant protection products generally ‘piggy- backing’ off the product development in agriculture - where worm control isn’t an area of research - then I struggle to see anything coming through on this front. The turf market, whilst is everything to us turfi es, isn’t a big enough market to justify the cost of research and development to develop plant protection products solely specifi c to
turf. The commercial aspect doesn’t stack up - especially when regulations mean that, even if you did discover an eff ective product, it is highly unlikely to be approved for sale. I think we can all understand why companies wouldn’t invest resource in to this area.
So, the future doesn’t look promising in terms of getting a chemical replacement for Carbendazim, but what about non-pesticidal products? We see a plethora of ‘worm cast suppressants’ on the market now that generally fall in to the category of sulphur- based surface acidifi ers - with the idea being that we know worms don’t particularly thrive in low pH situations and so, if we can lower the pH, we can lower the incidence on worm casting. This makes sense in theory but, in reality, lowering the pH of soil can be quite a challenge and so the feedback on these type of products is that they just
PC April/May 2021 119
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