QUESTION:

I have a question regarding a weekly column in my local paper, where the local resource used by this paper dispenses pest control advice which is ill advised. dangerous and incorrect. Last year they wrote about controlling rodents on the exterior of your home with snap traps on fences and along foundations. I wrote them and explained that all traps must be in a tamper resistant boxes to prevent animals other than rodents from being injured. They also wrote about using rodenticides but no mention of bait boxes. Today they wrote about using Onslaught mixed in cat food or tuna for yellow jacket control. They gave the name of a chemical supplier where Onslaught can be purchased locally and recommended sharing it with neighbors "because it's expensive and will last for years." The label states "for Professional use only" and their advice is inconsistent with the label for this use. I know that the business can't or shouldn't sell to individuals without a license, but can these folks give advice in the paper without a license? I would like to know what you think. I would like to contact the paper and the Agricultural Department to report them.

ANSWER:

I have one word on this, and that word is "LIABILITY". My answer here is probably going to be heavy with personal opinion, but one thing is certain, and that is if you give written advice on the use of pesticides or other pest control techniques you are subject to the liability when people take your advice and something goes wrong. In our current society where lawyers fill the TV ads drumming up business for themselves by advocating lawsuits anytime you feel you were a "victim", no one is going to assume responsibility for their own actions. If they put that snap trap on the fence to catch a roof rat and their own cat gets its foot broken by stepping on the trap, well someone has to pay, because common sense is no longer expected.

I have seen this problem many times over the years, where news media find a local expert to provide a weekly column or to answer readers' questions, and too often that advice slips into a folksy style filled with home remedies. Even throwing in a disclaimer about "be sure to read the Label" isn't going to save them when the lawsuit hits. Homeowners are not trained in using pest control products, and will take shortcuts routinely. This is one reason that WE, as suppliers to the professional industries, will NEVER sell a pesticide to an unlicensed person or business if licensing or certification is required. Unfortunately that statement on so many pesticide labels that it must not be sold to anyone not licensed or certified seems to hold no water. A few years back the EPA was asked to address this, given the widespread sales of these professional-use products on the internet, and the EPA backed out of it saying those Label statements are not legally binding, and they would not enforce them.

But, definitely making recommendations that are inconsistent with the Label is illegal. Onslaught is labeled for use as a yellowjacket bait, and legally can be mixed with these meat products to draw the YJ's. "Sharing" it with neighbors walks that thin line of legality, but since EPA chooses not to enforce the label statement then I suppose it can be done. It is probably not the brightest thing to do - have one untrained homeowner give some poison to his untrained neighbords and hope everything goes well - and this is going to result in a problem somewhere.

Your best recourse may be to work with the newspaper management itself. Point out where this advice they are printing is illegal or dangerous, and the paper owners had better recognize that they too would be drawn into the lawsuit if someone's dog or cat died or child was injured. It could even be a song bird hopping along the fence that gets killed in that exposed rat trap, and the neighbor next door is a rabid bird lover who sees this protected bird mercilessly slaughtered in the trap. Of course you, as a licensed pest management professional, would get cited by the local Dept. of Agriculture for doing some of the things these columnists are publicly advocating, but you are licensed and easier to prosecute.

So, work with the paper and maybe even try contacting the column writers, and I edited out their name here, to see if they are receptive to advice from you on where their recommendations could be problems. In California, perhaps more than many states, we had better be thinking in terms of environmental sensitivity all the time, or we will lose more of the tools we have for pest management.

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