Due to escalating costs associated with development and the mandatory testing that is associated with proving that any new herbicides are safe as well as effective it is not likely that we will see many new herbicides come on the market in the foreseeable future. Especially when you take into account all fo the “red tape” that is required by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in order to get a new herbicide approved and ready to sell to the public. Now there are no new herbicides or at least no novel modes of action. According to my sources, it has been many years since a new herbicide mode of action was introduced. As the patents run out we usually see some ” new” herbicides on the market but most of these are a generic version of one of the existing products that usually have the same active ingredient.
Our herbicides are precious commodities and we must use them properly, according to the label, and preserve them. Improper use of these herbicides can and does lead to some of the “weeds” we are trying to get rid of becoming resistant to one or more herbicides. When this occurs we wind up with “super weeds” that are considerably more difficult to control or eliminate. Herbicides are no longer the total answer to all of our weed problems.
