United States Prevention, Pesticides EPA 712-C-98-410
Environmental Protection and Toxic Substances March 1998
Agency (7101)
4»EPA Product Performance
Test Guidelines
OPPTS 810.3100
Soil Treatments for
mported Fire Ants
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INTRODUCTION
This guideline is one of a series of test guidelines that have been
developed by the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances,
United States Environmental Protection Agency for use in the testing of
pesticides and toxic substances, and the development of test data that must
be submitted to the Agency for review under Federal regulations.
The Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances (OPPTS)
has developed this guideline through a process of harmonization that
blended the testing guidance and requirements that existed in the Office
of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) and appeared in Title 40,
Chapter I, Subchapter R of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), the
Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) which appeared in publications of the
National Technical Information Service (NTIS) and the guidelines pub-
lished by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD).
The purpose of harmonizing these guidelines into a single set of
OPPTS guidelines is to minimize variations among the testing procedures
that must be performed to meet the data requirements of the U. S. Environ-
mental Protection Agency under the Toxic Substances Control Act (15
U.S.C. 2601) and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act
(7U.S.C. I36,etseq.).
Final Guideline Release: This guideline is available from the U.S.
Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402 on The Federal Bul-
letin Board. By modem dial 202-512-1387, telnet and ftp:
fedbbs.access.gpo.gov (IP 162.140.64.19), or call 202-512-0132 for disks
or paper copies. This guideline is also available electronically in ASCII
and PDF (portable document format) from EPA's World Wide Web site
(http://www.epa.gov/epahome/research.htm) under the heading "Research-
ers and Scientists/Test Methods and Guidelines/OPPTS Harmonized Test
Guidelines."
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OPPTS 810.3100 Soil treatments for imported fire ants.
(a) Scope—(1) Applicability. This guideline is intended to meet test-
ing requirements of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide
Act (FIFRA) (7 U.S.C. 136, et seq.)
(2) Background. The source material used in developing this har-
monized OPPTS test guideline is OPP guideline 95-3 General Soil Treat-
ments (Pesticide Assessment Guidelines, Subdivision G: Product Perform-
ance, EPA report 540/9-82-026, October 1982).
(b) Overview. This guideline is concerned with efficacy testing of
invertebrate control pesticides used for control of imported fire ants.
(c) General considerations. The testing of pesticide products for use
in home gardens should follow the same procedures as are appropriate
for evaluating their commercial use.
(d) Evaluation and reporting procedures. The procedures used to
evaluate product performance should be specified. Reports should include
insect counts, percent damage, or other measures for determining the effec-
tiveness of the test product. Results should include the average infestation
reduction throughout the sampled post-treatment period compared with that
in control plots or in pre- and post-treatment periods. Raw data on pest
counts, injury counts, or other measures of control should be summarized.
Any adverse effects such as phytotoxicity should be reported.
(e) Site selection. Sites should be selected from several states within
the range of the imported fire ant. Usually, three such sites are necessary
to provide information in the data derived.
(f) Plot size—(1) Mound application. In general, use a minimum
of 10 mounds per plot. Usually, 3 to 4 plots are treated with the candidate
compound and 1 plot is used as a control.
(2) Broadcast treatments. Plots should be of sufficient size to permit
the use of the application equipment specified on the label. Replication
may be difficult when very large plots are necessary, but is encouraged
to develop statistically valid data.
(g) Suggested performance standards. Unless otherwise specified,
these standards are presented on the basis of pre- and post-treatment pest
population counts from the treated as well as the untreated lots and stand-
ard comparative treatments. All percentages of control refer to the per-
formance of the test substance (as determined by insect counts and other
measures correlated to insect population pressures) against the vulnerable
stage(s) of the target pest, when evaluated according to a recognized treat-
ment program under actual field conditions.
(1) Control claims. A minimum of 90% control based on counts
made for a minimum of 30 days for mound applications and 60 days for
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broadcast treatments. Percent control is based on the percent reduction in
both old and new active mounds in the treatment area as compared to
precounts and untreated controls.
(2) Suppression claims. Broadcast treatments only. A minimum of
80% control based on counts made for a minimum of 60 days and based
upon the adjusted percentage of reduction of the total number of old and
new active mounds in the treatment area and untreated controls. A lower
percentage of control may be acceptable if testing was done under adverse
conditions, but in no case would less than 70% control be acceptable.
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