10.3 Fish, Wildlife, Bees, and Other Non-Targets

Quick Answer: Protect fish, wildlife, bees, and other nontargets as a Core competency (40 CFR 171.103(c)(3)(iii)) and as New Jersey use law. N.J.A.C. 7:30-9.11 is 24-hour bee notice within three miles to March 1 registrants. Microencapsulated bee-toxic products are banned on blooming crop or ground cover. 10.2(m) bans diazinon on large turf and on smaller turf that waterfowl use. 10.2(p) bans Pinelands ROW herbicides unless needed to protect adjacent agriculture. When the label says so, Endangered Species Protection Bulletins are labeling.

40 CFR 171.103(c)(3)(iii) requires practical knowledge of the presence of fish, wildlife, and other non-target organisms. Bees, aquatic invertebrates, birds, mammals, listed species, pets, and the neighbor’s tomatoes are all nontargets. N.J.A.C. 7:30-10.2(d) forbids direct application to a nontarget site. 10.2(e) and 10.2(f) require reasonable precautions and forbid reasonably foreseeable off-target movement. New Jersey then stacks product-specific and site-specific restrictions the Core actually tests.

Bees and N.J.A.C. 7:30-9.11

N.J.A.C. 7:30-9.11(a) is a notification rule, not a license to kill bees. No person shall make an outdoor application of a pesticide product whose label or labeling notes that the product is toxic to bees, unless that person first notifies, at least 24 hours prior to the date of application, each beekeeper who:

1. Desires notification
2. Owns, operates, or maintains a beeyard or beehive inhabited by honeybees or native bees located within three miles of the target site
3. Has been registered with the Department by March 1 of the calendar year in which the applications will occur

NJDEP maintains the beekeeper registry so applicators can obtain the list. You request it; you do not guess who has hives behind a treeline.

What the notice must contain

9.11(b) requires:

• Intended date of application
• Approximate time of application
• Brand name and active ingredient
• Location of the land to be treated
• Name and certified pesticide applicator license number of the responsible pesticide applicator

9.11(c) allows telephone, in person, regular or certified mail with enough lead time to arrive the day prior, fax, or email. If no application is made on the intended date, notify again under 9.11(h).

If the date slides to the next consecutive day, notify as soon as reasonably possible but not later than 10:00 P.M. the night prior to the new date (9.11(h)). A longer postponement is a new 24-hour-notice problem.

Exceptions, emergencies, and waivers

Less than three acres. 9.11(f) exempts applications on an aggregate area less than three acres, provided the application is not made with hydraulic spraying equipment capable of operating at a rate greater than 300 psi and 10 gpm, airblast sprayers, or aerial equipment. A 2-acre 3B lawn job with a small boom may be exempt. The same acreage with an airblast sprayer is not.

Agriculture. 9.11(i) says the section does not apply to pesticide applications made for agricultural purposes, except to listed crops within stated dates or when in the flowering stage:

A blueberry application on May 1 is not exempt. A field-corn application in July, with no listed crop and no flowering cover, may be. Flowering weeds in the ground cover can pull you back into the rule.

Blueberry buffer for community/areawide forest sprays. 9.11(j) forbids a community or areawide application of a bee-toxic product on forest or shade-tree hardwood species within one mile of a commercial blueberry field from April 15 through May 31 unless the applicator has written permission from all blueberry growers within that mile.

Emergencies. 9.11(d) lets the Department alter the 24-hour interval if someone demonstrates an emergency — a sudden, unexpected pest infestation that cannot reasonably wait — but notice must still be given as soon as reasonably possible before or after the application.

Unable to reach the beekeeper. 9.11(g) relieves you only if (1) the Department failed to provide information you requested at least two weeks before the application date, or (2) you could not contact the beekeeper after one telephone contact attempted between 9:00 A.M. and 10:00 P.M. on the last day before the 24-hour notification limit. One late-night voicemail at 11:00 P.M. does not qualify.

Beekeeper does not protect the hive. 9.11(e) — if the beekeeper does not move, cover, or otherwise protect the hive, you may apply without delay, provided the application still complies with the label and the Act. Notification is not a waiver of label bee precautions (do not apply to blooming plants, apply after foraging ends, and similar mandatory statements).

Written waiver. 9.11(l) allows a signed waiver in specified wording. Keep waivers at least three years, produce them immediately on Department request, and remember: a waiver does not relieve the duty under 10.2 to transmit appropriate warnings or precautions.

Microencapsulated products in bloom

9.11(k) is a use prohibition, not a notice rule: no person shall apply any microencapsulated formulation known to be toxic to bees, either in the crop or in the ground cover below or abutting the crop, while the crop or the ground cover is in bloom. Microencapsulated particles can be collected with pollen and carried into the hive, where they continue to kill bees. Bloom plus a microencapsulated bee-toxic product is illegal in New Jersey even if you notified every beekeeper in three miles. Label bee statements remain mandatory under 10.2(a). 9.11 is additional.

Fish, waterfowl, and 10.2(m) diazinon

Aquatic organisms are often more sensitive than the labeled pest. Insecticides — especially organophosphates, carbamates, and many pyrethroids — are classic fish- and invertebrate-killers when they reach water by drift, runoff, or rinsate. Herbicides can kill fish indirectly by dumping a pond’s oxygen when a heavy mass of plants dies and decomposes. Granules that birds mistake for seed, and baits that dogs or wildlife take, are wildlife routes. 10.2(c), 10.2(g) (rinsing), and 10.2(f) still apply even when the product is not diazinon.

N.J.A.C. 7:30-10.2(m) is specific: no person shall make an application of a pesticide containing diazinon to sod farms, golf courses, or other turf areas greater than three acres, or to other general turf areas of three acres or less that evidence indicates are frequented by waterfowl. The waterfowl clause is why a one-acre pond-side lawn that hosts geese is still off-limits. Diazinon granular turf products have a documented history of waterfowl kills. Do not treat this as a historical curiosity; it is current 10.2(m) text. A granular insecticide left on an impervious driveway that washes to a lake is reasonably foreseeable wildlife exposure even for products that are not diazinon.

Pinelands herbicide restriction

N.J.A.C. 7:30-10.2(p) incorporates the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan: pursuant to N.J.A.C. 7:50-6.87(c), no person shall use any herbicide on any road or public utility right-of-way within the Pinelands unless necessary to protect an adjacent agricultural activity. If 7:50-6.87(c) is amended, the amended Pinelands rule takes precedence.

This is a Category 6B / 6A trap. Mowing, cutting, and non-herbicide vegetation management remain available. “We always spray the parkway shoulders in Atlantic County” is not a defense inside the Pinelands boundary. The exception is narrow: protecting adjacent agricultural activity, not driver sight-lines as such. Confirm whether the site is in the Pinelands before you mix a ROW herbicide. The Pinelands are also a leaching landscape (section 10.2); herbicide that is legal outside a ROW can still threaten the Kirkwood–Cohansey aquifer if you ignore soil and wells.

Endangered Species Protection Bulletins

When a pesticide label directs you to Endangered Species Protection Bulletins, those bulletins are labeling. Using the product inconsistent with the bulletin is a FIFRA misuse and a 10.2(a) violation.

EPA publishes bulletins through Bulletins Live! Two (BLT). Typical label directions require you to obtain the bulletin for your application area and month no more than six months before using the product, and to follow the bulletin that is valid for the month of application. In BLT you locate the site, select the month, and enter the EPA registration number. If the site sits in a Pesticide Use Limitation Area (PULA), the bulletin may add buffers, timing windows, application-method limits, or no-spray zones to protect listed species. If no PULA applies for that product and month, document that you checked.

New Jersey has federally listed and state-listed species in coastal marshes, the Delaware Bayshore, the Pinelands, and Highlands streams. Do not assume a suburban 3B lawn is automatically free of bulletin limits — check when the label says to check. Keep a copy of the bulletin (print or digital) with the application record so you can show what you followed.

10.2(e) still requires reasonable precautions for non-listed wildlife: pets on turf, fish in ornamental ponds, nesting birds in ornamental shrubs. The bulletin is a floor for listed species, not a ceiling for everything else. Label pollinator statements, aquatic buffers, and New Jersey’s bee, diazinon, aquatic-permit, and Pinelands rules still apply even when BLT shows no PULA.

Worked New Jersey scenarios

Scenario H — March 1 registry. A 3A applicator in Hunterdon County plans a bee-toxic outdoor spray on April 10. The nearest registered hive is 2.8 miles away. The beekeeper registered by March 1 and wants notice. 9.11(a) requires at least 24-hour notice with the 9.11(b) content. Calling the morning of the spray is late.

Scenario I — microencapsulated bloom. A 1A grower wants a microencapsulated insecticide on a blooming cover crop under peaches in May. 9.11(k) prohibits that application while the crop or ground cover is in bloom. Notification cannot cure it.

Scenario J — geese on a small lawn. A 3B product containing diazinon is proposed for a 1.5-acre office lawn where Canada geese loaf daily at a fountain. The area is not greater than three acres, but evidence indicates waterfowl frequent it. 10.2(m) forbids the application.

Scenario K — Pinelands ROW. A 6B crew stages a broadleaf herbicide for a utility ROW in the Pinelands. No adjacent agricultural activity is at risk. 10.2(p) forbids the herbicide. Use mechanical control.

Scenario L — unread bulletin. An agricultural label says to follow Endangered Species Protection Bulletins. The applicator skips BLT because “there are no endangered species in this township.” If a PULA applied, the application is inconsistent with labeling.

High-yield traps

• Three miles, 24 hours, March 1 — miss any one and 9.11(a) fails.
• The under-three-acre exemption dies if you use airblast, aerial, or high-pressure hydraulic equipment.
• Microencapsulated + bloom is a prohibition, not a notice issue.
• Diazinon on a small goose lawn is still 10.2(m).
• Pinelands ROW herbicide needs adjacent agriculture, not a Core license.

Official resources

• N.J.A.C. 7:30-9.11 notification to beekeepers
• NJDEP beekeeper notification and registration
• N.J.A.C. 7:30-10.2 pesticide use and/or application
• EPA Endangered Species Protection Bulletins / Bulletins Live! Two