All commercial pesticide applicators must take exams in order to become initially certified and some choose to become re-certified by exam rather than by attending continuing instructional courses. With the arrival of Asian soybean rust in this country, many commercial applicators are considering adding agricultural diseases (category 1C) to their certification so that they can apply fungicides. Most agricultural commercial applicators are certified in Ag Weeds (category 1A) and many are certified in Ag Insects (category 1B), but not very many are certified in Ag Diseases (category 1C).
Three training sessions designed to help prepare individuals for the commercial pesticide applicator examinations will be offered in east central and southeast Iowa in spring 2005.
One session is in Burlington on Wednesday, January 12 in the Des Moines County Extension Office at 900 Osborn Street.
A second training session will be offered in Iowa City on Wednesday, January 26 in Montgomery Hall on the Johnson County Fairgrounds.
A third session will be offered in Bettendorf on Monday, March 21 in the Scott County Extension Office, 875 Tanglefoot Lane.
Training will begin at 9:00 a.m. at all locations.
The training sessions will cover the Iowa Core Manual and Agricultural Weed Management (category 1A), Agricultural Insect Control (category 1B), Agricultural Crop Disease Management (category 1C), Ornamental, Turf, and Greenhouse Pest Management (categories 3O, 3T, and 3G), Seed Treatment (category 4), and Right-of-Way (category 6). Training on the Iowa Core Manual will be from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. Training on the other categories will begin at approximately 10:30 a.m. and conclude in early afternoon.
There is a $20 fee per person at each training session. These training sessions do NOT qualify as continuing instructional courses. For more information, please contact Mark Carlton at (641) 932-5612 or mcarltn@iastate.edu ; Jim Fawcett at (319) 337-2145 or fawcett@iastate.edu ; Patrick O'Malley at (319) 337-2145 or omall@iastate.edu ; or Virgil Schmitt at (563) 263-5701 or vschmitt@iastate.edu .
This article originally appeared in the 12/12/2004 issue.
Links to this article are strongly encouraged, and this article may be republished without further permission if published as written and if credit is given to the author, Yard and Garden, and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. If this article is to be used in any other manner, permission from the author is required. This article was originally published on December 12, 2004. The information contained within may not be the most current and accurate depending on when it is accessed.