In a Jan. 21 letter to the Association of Structural Pest Control Regulatory Officials (ASPCRO), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agreed to lift the target pest restriction on rodenticides that removed the ability of applicators to control pest rodents other than house mice, Norway rats and roof rats in and around homes and other man-made structures. NPMA voiced concerns about the lack of rodenticide products available for professional use against important pests like white footed mice, pack rats, and voles, which prompted the ASPCRO inquiry. According to ASPCRO President John Scott, "this is an important step to ensure professionals have the tools they need to manage rodents that pose a significant public health risk, while still meeting the intent of EPA's rodenticide mitigation decision to ensure rodenticides do not pose a significant risk to children and non-target wildlife." Click here to read more.

Honey bees are of vital importance to our agricultural system and have multiple threats facing them, including a loss of foraging land and poor diet. Foraging honey bees may travel several miles in search of pollen and nectar and it is very difficult to track great numbers of bees over such distances. To address this question, a team of scientists from Ohio State University led by Dr. Rodney T. Richardson recently published a research paper exploring honey bees and their foraging patterns with the intention of being able to identify the sources of pollen brought by worker bees back to the hive. The researchers engaged in melissopalynology, the study of bee-collected pollen, by using a new molecular technique (metabarcoding) to determine the plants frequented by managed hives in Madison County, Ohio. 19 families of plants were identified via pollen samples and trees (maple, ash, and others), dandelion, and mustard made up the bulk of the foraged pollen.

This paper was published in the most recent volume of Applications in Plant Sciences under the title, "Application of ITS2 Metabarcoding to Determine the Provenance of Pollen Collected by Honey Bees in an Agroecosystem"