The recent announcement, by the Chemicals Regulation Directorate, that authorizations for chlopyrifos containing products are to be revoked means farmers will lose widely-used insecticides used to control a range of insect pests in agricultural crops and amenity situations.

As of 1 April 2016 it will be illegal to sell, distribute or use stocks of products containing chlopyrifos. The only exception being a protected brassica seedling drench treatment applied via automated gantry sprayer.

The announcement that chlopyrifos is to be withdrawn so quickly has been a surprise, says Martin Lainsbury, editor, The UK Pesticide Guide. "Without suitable alternative products on the market to control aphids, caterpillars, wheat bulb fly and leatherjackets this is going to leave a big gap in the farmers' armoury of crop protection products."

News such as this needs to be communicated to the end-user as soon as possible and is one of the advantages of the online resource ukpesticideguide.co.uk. Jointly published by BCPC and CAB International, the ukpesticideguide.co.uk, is regularly up-dated throughout the year to ensure users have the most up-to-date product information in order to plan their spray programmes. This resource can be easily accessed on computers as well as smart phones and tablets. BASIS members will also benefit by earning 3 CPD points when subscribing to the online resource.

"I would strongly recommend users of The UK Pesticide Guide consider the online version," advises Martin. "With its frequent updates, the addition of appropriate EAMUs and the inclusion of new approvals and notification of product withdrawals means that users can access the latest pesticide information much more efficiently."

To subscribe to UKpesticideguide.co.uk, priced £65 per year, visit www.ukpesticideguide.co.uk