Bifenthrin use in agriculture: crop labels and registration checks
Bifenthrin is an insecticide in the pyrethroid family. It is used on various agricultural crops and in homes, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) first registered it in 1985. It interferes with the nervous system of insects when they eat or touch it.
Pesticide labels are legally enforceable, and all of them carry the statement: "It is a violation of Federal law to use this product in a manner inconsistent with its labeling." The crop, pest and method for a bifenthrin product therefore come from its own product label.
Bifenthrin products and the registration number
Products containing bifenthrin come in many forms, including sprays, granules, and aerosols. There are over 600 products containing bifenthrin available in the United States.
A product is identified by its EPA Registration, Distributor Product, or Special Local Need Number, which is usually found on the back panel of the label along with the detailed instructions for use.
Before you compare directions, photograph the product name, the active-ingredient panel and the registration number, and save the photos with the field and the target pest. Identify the formulation first (spray, granule or aerosol), because the directions differ between them.
To get the safety data sheet (SDS), send the manufacturer the full product name, the formulation and a photo of the container, and ask for the matching sheet. Keep it with the label. If the sheet names a different product or supplier, ask the manufacturer to sort out the mismatch before you file it in the field plan.
Bifenthrin runoff, water and bees
Bifenthrin is not likely to reach groundwater because it binds tightly to soil. Soil-bound bifenthrin has the potential to contaminate surface waters through runoff.
Bifenthrin is highly toxic to fish and small aquatic organisms and very highly toxic to bees. It can last a long time in the environment and may accumulate in fish. It is low in toxicity to birds.
EPA-registered pesticide: check the status in APPRIL
The Active Pesticide Product Registration Informational Listing (APPRIL) is a searchable database of active and cancelled pesticide products, with a link to the Pesticide Product Label System. Each listing gives the product's status, the sites it is registered to be applied to and the pests it is registered to treat.
Which EPA search finds what
Chemical Search covers active ingredients: enter the active ingredient's name or Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) Registration Number to find regulatory actions, science reviews, evaluation schedules, public comment opportunities and public dockets. The Pesticide Product Label System (PPLS) is a searchable database of pesticide product labels, searched by product or alternative brand name, company name, chemical name or EPA registration number. APPRIL covers active and cancelled products.
Use each search for its own job: Chemical Search for the ingredient, PPLS for the label, APPRIL for the registration status. Keep the identifiers apart too. A CAS number identifies the chemical you are researching; the registration number on the container identifies the product and its instructions. If a search returns several similar products, compare the container's complete number instead of picking the first familiar name, and ask the manufacturer if nothing matches.
Save the exact product record you used, with its status, registered sites and target pests, together with the label.
How bifenthrin exposure happens
You could be exposed to bifenthrin if you touch it, eat it, or breathe it in, including by breathing in the spray mist during an application. Studies indicate that bifenthrin does not absorb through the skin well.
Go through the job step by step and ask at each step how a person could touch, swallow or breathe the product: receiving containers, measuring concentrate, connecting equipment, applying, cleaning and handling contaminated items. Take the protective equipment for each step from the label of your product.
Malathion use in agriculture: product identity, target and application route
Malathion is an insecticide in the chemical family known as organophosphates. Products containing malathion are used outdoors to control a wide variety of insects in agricultural settings and around people's homes.
Malathion 5EC from Drexel Chemical Company is an insecticide/miticide used to control pests on a broad range of crop and non-crop applications.
Start with the product in your store: compare the name and registration number on your container with what the manufacturer's page for the product shows before you ask how to treat a crop.
Malathion exposure and first aid
People and other animals can be affected the same way as insects if they are exposed to enough malathion. About the same amount of malathion is taken into the body whether you breathe it in or swallow it, and it is also readily taken into the body through skin.
For skin or clothing contact with Malathion 5EC, take off contaminated clothing, rinse skin immediately with plenty of water for 15 to 20 minutes, and call a poison control center or doctor for treatment advice. Note to physicians: the product is a cholinesterase inhibitor and atropine is antidotal.
Malathion, pollinators and water
Malathion is highly toxic to bees and other beneficial insects, some fish, and other aquatic life. It mixes with water and can move quickly through soil. It can be found in surface waters such as streams, and sometimes in well water. Its half-life is about 17 days in soil and between 2 and 18 days in water.
Malathion 5EC is highly toxic to bees exposed to direct treatment or residues on blooming crops or weeds. In citrus, stone fruit, pome fruit and tree nuts, it must not be applied within 3 days prior to bloom, during bloom, or until petal fall is complete.
The EPA master label has two sublabels
The EPA-accepted May 4, 2026 master document for registration 19713-217 (Drexel Malathion 5EC) contains Sublabel A, the agricultural use label, and Sublabel B, a public-health mosquitocide label. Sublabel B covers ultra-low-volume applications against mosquitoes and is not for use in New York.
Sublabel B is for use only by federal, state, tribal or local government officials responsible for public health or vector control, by persons certified in the appropriate category or otherwise authorized by the State or Tribal Lead Pesticide Regulatory Agency to perform adult mosquito control applications, or by persons under their direct supervision.
Use the sublabel that came with your container. Before you give anyone mosquito-control work, check that the person has the authorization Sublabel B requires.
Malathion crop rows: rate, REI and restrictions
The REI for each crop is listed in the directions for use associated with that crop.
For field corn, the REI is 72 hours for detasseling and 12 hours for all other activities, and the maximum application rate is 1 pound a.i. (1.6 pints of this product) per acre.
Keep your spray records in one place. Free to start.
For citrus in California, the REI is 12 hours if the product is applied at the maximum rate of 1.5 pounds a.i. (2.4 pints of this product) per acre.
For rice and wild rice, propanil must not be applied within 15 days of malathion treatment. The maximum number of applications per year is 2, the minimum retreatment interval is 7 days, and a 24-hour holding time is required before paddywater may be released after treatment. Application may not be made around bodies of water where fish or shellfish are grown and/or harvested commercially.
Read the whole crop row for your crop, state and worker activity: pests, rate, preharvest interval, REI and restrictions together. Citrus rows differ by state, and the field-corn row separates detasseling from other work. For rice, also check which herbicides were used earlier and when the field is flooded and drained.
Malathion runoff, forecast and endangered-species bulletin
Do not apply the product when soil is saturated, or when a storm likely to produce runoff from the treated area is forecast within 48 hours after application.
To protect endangered species, the label requires the user to follow the measures in the Endangered Species Protection Bulletin for the area. The Bulletin must be obtained no earlier than six months before using the product, and the Bulletin valid for the month of application must be used.
Before the operator starts, look at the actual weather forecast, the crop's bloom and any flowering weeds nearby. Keep the bulletin result with the field and the date of application.
Malathion resistance management
The label tells users to adopt an integrated pest management program for insecticides/acaricides use that includes scouting, uses historical information related to pesticide use, crop rotation, record keeping, and which considers cultural, biological and other chemical control practices. It also tells users to monitor after application for unexpected target pest survival.
On mixtures, the label states that mixtures with components having the same IRAC mode of action classification are not recommended for insect resistance management. Mixtures of insecticides with unequal periods of residual insecticide activity may offer an insect resistance management benefit only for the period where both insecticides are active.
Keep scouting notes and spray history for each field. If pests survive a treatment, show those records to your crop adviser instead of simply repeating the spray. For a mixture, ask the adviser what each ingredient is labeled for and whether any two share an IRAC class; a different brand name does not mean a different mode of action.
Malathion chemigation and containers
The label allows application only through sprinkler irrigation (center pivot, lateral move, end tow, side (wheel) roll, traveler, big gun, solid set or hand move) or drip irrigation systems, and prohibits any other type of irrigation system. An irrigation system used for pesticide application must not be connected to a public water system unless the label-prescribed safety devices for public water systems are in place.
Do not contaminate water, food or feed by storage or disposal. Nonrefillable containers must not be reused or refilled; a refillable container may be refilled with pesticide only.
Tell the adviser which sprayer, nozzles, carrier and method you actually use, and ask the applicator to check your irrigation system against the chemigation directions before you treat it like an ordinary spray boom. Keep the product in its original container, and before work decide where product, water and waste will go. Work out whether your package is refillable or nonrefillable before asking a collection program what it takes.
After treatment, return to the marked sampling spots and record species, counts and damage the same way each time; note any missed visit or changed spot. If something goes wrong in the environment, write down the time and place and take photos, and keep the product identity with them.
Fipronil in agriculture: crop labels and registration checks
Fipronil is a broad use insecticide that belongs to the phenylpyrazole chemical family. EPA first registered it in the United States in 1996, and more than 50 registered products contain it.
Fipronil is used in a wide variety of pesticide products, including granular products for grass, gel baits, spot-on pet care products, liquid termite control products, and products for agriculture.
How fipronil works
Fipronil kills insects when they eat it or come in contact with it. It works by disrupting the normal function of the central nervous system in insects.
Fipronil registration records
APPRIL is a searchable database of active and cancelled pesticide products, and each listing shows the sites the product is registered to be applied to.
Fipronil in water, soil and for bees
Fipronil is highly toxic to sea and freshwater fish and to sea and freshwater invertebrates. Two fipronil metabolites tested in freshwater fish and invertebrates were more toxic than fipronil itself. It is also highly toxic to honey bees.
Fipronil sticks tightly to soil and does not mix very well with water, so it does not move much in the soil and is not expected to get into groundwater. Fipronil breaks down in the soil so that half of the original amount is gone in about 125 days. When fipronil in the water is exposed to sunlight it breaks down rapidly with a half-life of 4-12 hours. Fipronil and its breakdown products can build up in water under normal conditions.
The label defines where fipronil may be used
EPA translates its evaluation of a pesticide into a set of conditions, directions, and precautions on the label that define who may use a pesticide, as well as where, how, how much, and how often it may be used. It is a violation of Federal law to use a pesticide product in a manner inconsistent with its labeling.
Check the label for the actual site and method. A termite-control instruction is not a crop instruction, and a pet product does not go into a sprayer just because it contains the same chemical. Mark flowering plants, nearby water and drainage on the field map before you discuss a treatment.
Fipronil exposure and first aid
People can be exposed to fipronil by contacting their skin, contacting their eyes, breathing it in, or eating it. If exposure occurs, follow the First Aid instructions on the product label carefully; the Poison Control Center, 800-222-1222, gives additional treatment advice. Have the product name, the label and what happened ready when you call.
California's 2026 draft mitigation for fipronil pet products
On September 16, 2026, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) announced it was accepting public feedback on potential options for reducing health and environmental risks from fipronil in pet flea and tick products. Its Draft Fipronil Mitigation Options Memo summarizes identified aquatic and human health risks associated with pet products containing fipronil.
Next step
The EPA registration number on the back panel of the label is the key for retrieving the product record; the crop-use directions are on the label itself (how to read a pesticide label).