Pesticides in California: their potential impacts on wildlife resources and their use in permitted cannabis cultivation
The agricultural industry, including commercial cannabis cultivators, often relies on rodenticides and insecticides to help minimize damage from wildlife and insect pest species. Many of the most toxic pesticides are listed as California restricted materials, meaning they can only be purchased an...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
California Department of Fish and Wildlife
2020-09-01
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| Series: | California Fish and Wildlife Journal |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=183841&inline |
| Summary: | The agricultural industry, including commercial cannabis cultivators, often relies
on rodenticides and insecticides to help minimize damage from wildlife and
insect pest species. Many of the most toxic pesticides are listed as California
restricted materials, meaning they can only be purchased and used by certified
applicators under a permit from a County Agricultural Commissioner. Despite
the permit requirement and other restrictions, exposure of non-target wildlife
to pesticides continues to occur throughout California. Non-target wildlife may
be directly exposed through ingestion, inhalation, or dermal contact or secondarily exposed through ingestion of contaminated or poisoned prey. Exposure
to pesticides can be lethal, or it can cause sublethal effects that impact species’
immunology, reproduction, thermoregulation, morphology, and behavior. To
date, information pertaining to pesticides is spread among disparate resources.
Our review paper aims to synthesize a subset of this information. We provide
an overview of insecticides and rodenticides and explore the potential effects
that these pesticides may have on non-target wildlife species. We then outline
current regulations regarding the use of these pesticides in cannabis cultivation,
one of the fastest growing agricultural commodities in California. |
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| ISSN: | 2689-419X 2689-4203 |