Iowa 3OT Pesticide Manual Exam 2025
Questions and Answers
EPA reported this much was spent on pesticide use for
industrial/commercial/government sector and this much was spend for home and
garden sector in 2012 - --CORRECT ANSWER--1.4 billion; 3.3 billion
Define integrated pest management - --CORRECT ANSWER--System that uses
all available and suitable pest control tactics to reduce pest populations to tolerable
levels while minimizing adverse environmental side effects.
Explain how aesthetic thresholds affect IPM tactics - --CORRECT ANSWER--
Aesthetic thresholds are based on tolerance, personal comfort, taste, plant
appearance, and specific site conditions.
Nurseries and the like have zero pest tolerance whereas landscape plantings might
have low tolerance.
Healthy lawns have a higher threshold than stressed, weakened lawns
Explain how IPM can reduce the use of pesticides - --CORRECT ANSWER--
Pesticides are not meant to be a solution to all problems.
....COPYRIGHT ©️ 2025 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED...TRUSTED & VERIFIED 1
,IPM provides the most effective solutions in all regards, which may not always be
pesticides.
List the six control strategies used in IPM - --CORRECT ANSWER--Cultural
Mechanical
Host resistance
Biological
Regulatory
chemical
Define pesticide - --CORRECT ANSWER--Any material used to kill, attract, repel,
regulate, or interrupt growth and mating of pests, or to regulate plant growth
Contact pesticides - --CORRECT ANSWER--Must physically touch the pest
organism or be sprayed on the site the pest frequents to exert an action
Example would be protective fungicide
Must be re-applied to new plant tissues or if precipitation washes product off
Systemic pesticide - --CORRECT ANSWER--Enters the plant via roots or above
ground plant tissues and is moved inside of the plant.
Could render plant toxic to insect or mice
Could move through plant to kill parts of the plant
....COPYRIGHT ©️ 2025 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED...TRUSTED & VERIFIED 2
,Example would be curative fungicide because it penetrates the plant and stops
disease
Preemergence - --CORRECT ANSWER--Applied prior to weed seed germination.
Little to no effect on weeds that have emerged
Postemergence - --CORRECT ANSWER--Applied to actively growing plants.
Work best in sunlight, high humidity, good soil moisture
Selective pesticide - --CORRECT ANSWER--Control only certain types or stages
of pests while leaving nontarget organisms unaffected.
Example would be herbicide that kills broadleaf weeds and not turfgrass
Nonselective pesticide - --CORRECT ANSWER--Exert their action on a wide
variety of pests.
Control most of the plants they are sprayed on.
Identify the best application timing for effective pest control as it pertains to: plant
diseases, insects, and weeds - --CORRECT ANSWER--Plant diseases
For fungicides, it is critical that susceptible tissues be protected before an infection
begins or at the first appearance of any symptoms
Insects
....COPYRIGHT ©️ 2025 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED...TRUSTED & VERIFIED 3
, The younger the stage of insect, the more susceptible it is to chemical control.
Weeds
Generally most effective when applied to actively growing plants and least effective
when plants are not actively growing
Annual weeds are easiest to control in early spring
Biennials should be treated in fall or early spring when in the rosette stage
Perennial weeds can be controlled in early bloom stage or in the fall
Explain how pesticide resistance develops in a pest population - --CORRECT
ANSWER--Resistance is the ability of a pest species that was once effectively
controlled by a pesticide to survive spray concentrations that were previously
effective.
It is an inherited trait that results from repeated applications of pesticides with the
same site of action or mode of action.
Examples include pythium blight in turfgrass, botrytis in ornamental, green peach
aphid in insects, and goosegrass weeds
State the importance of the numeric codes at the top of a pesticide label and
pesticide resistance - --CORRECT ANSWER--These codes help applicators
quickly identify the mode of action by looking at the group number.
....COPYRIGHT ©️ 2025 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED...TRUSTED & VERIFIED 4
Questions and Answers
EPA reported this much was spent on pesticide use for
industrial/commercial/government sector and this much was spend for home and
garden sector in 2012 - --CORRECT ANSWER--1.4 billion; 3.3 billion
Define integrated pest management - --CORRECT ANSWER--System that uses
all available and suitable pest control tactics to reduce pest populations to tolerable
levels while minimizing adverse environmental side effects.
Explain how aesthetic thresholds affect IPM tactics - --CORRECT ANSWER--
Aesthetic thresholds are based on tolerance, personal comfort, taste, plant
appearance, and specific site conditions.
Nurseries and the like have zero pest tolerance whereas landscape plantings might
have low tolerance.
Healthy lawns have a higher threshold than stressed, weakened lawns
Explain how IPM can reduce the use of pesticides - --CORRECT ANSWER--
Pesticides are not meant to be a solution to all problems.
....COPYRIGHT ©️ 2025 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED...TRUSTED & VERIFIED 1
,IPM provides the most effective solutions in all regards, which may not always be
pesticides.
List the six control strategies used in IPM - --CORRECT ANSWER--Cultural
Mechanical
Host resistance
Biological
Regulatory
chemical
Define pesticide - --CORRECT ANSWER--Any material used to kill, attract, repel,
regulate, or interrupt growth and mating of pests, or to regulate plant growth
Contact pesticides - --CORRECT ANSWER--Must physically touch the pest
organism or be sprayed on the site the pest frequents to exert an action
Example would be protective fungicide
Must be re-applied to new plant tissues or if precipitation washes product off
Systemic pesticide - --CORRECT ANSWER--Enters the plant via roots or above
ground plant tissues and is moved inside of the plant.
Could render plant toxic to insect or mice
Could move through plant to kill parts of the plant
....COPYRIGHT ©️ 2025 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED...TRUSTED & VERIFIED 2
,Example would be curative fungicide because it penetrates the plant and stops
disease
Preemergence - --CORRECT ANSWER--Applied prior to weed seed germination.
Little to no effect on weeds that have emerged
Postemergence - --CORRECT ANSWER--Applied to actively growing plants.
Work best in sunlight, high humidity, good soil moisture
Selective pesticide - --CORRECT ANSWER--Control only certain types or stages
of pests while leaving nontarget organisms unaffected.
Example would be herbicide that kills broadleaf weeds and not turfgrass
Nonselective pesticide - --CORRECT ANSWER--Exert their action on a wide
variety of pests.
Control most of the plants they are sprayed on.
Identify the best application timing for effective pest control as it pertains to: plant
diseases, insects, and weeds - --CORRECT ANSWER--Plant diseases
For fungicides, it is critical that susceptible tissues be protected before an infection
begins or at the first appearance of any symptoms
Insects
....COPYRIGHT ©️ 2025 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED...TRUSTED & VERIFIED 3
, The younger the stage of insect, the more susceptible it is to chemical control.
Weeds
Generally most effective when applied to actively growing plants and least effective
when plants are not actively growing
Annual weeds are easiest to control in early spring
Biennials should be treated in fall or early spring when in the rosette stage
Perennial weeds can be controlled in early bloom stage or in the fall
Explain how pesticide resistance develops in a pest population - --CORRECT
ANSWER--Resistance is the ability of a pest species that was once effectively
controlled by a pesticide to survive spray concentrations that were previously
effective.
It is an inherited trait that results from repeated applications of pesticides with the
same site of action or mode of action.
Examples include pythium blight in turfgrass, botrytis in ornamental, green peach
aphid in insects, and goosegrass weeds
State the importance of the numeric codes at the top of a pesticide label and
pesticide resistance - --CORRECT ANSWER--These codes help applicators
quickly identify the mode of action by looking at the group number.
....COPYRIGHT ©️ 2025 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED...TRUSTED & VERIFIED 4
