Got a Pest Problem? Here’s How IR-4 Can Help

By Brian D. Sparks|August 1, 2025

The IR-4 Project was established in 1963 by the USDA and land-grant universities to ensure that specialty crop farmers have legal access to safe and effective crop protection products. IR-4 works directly with crop growers, registrants of crop protection products, and other members of the specialty crop community to develop data required by the EPA for the registration of pest management tools for specialty crops.

IR-4’s Environmental Horticulture Program research priorities are set every two years, and 2025 is one of those years. Feedback is gathered from growers on the pest problems they are experiencing through a Grower and Extension Survey, and IR-4 works with the industry to set research priorities to try and solve those problems with new or updated product labeling.

If you are experiencing (or observing) pest management challenges on ornamentals and lack the proper tools to mitigate them, the survey is a great place to start. If you have a product in mind to potentially manage a pest issue on a particular crop, please complete the Project Request form. Or, if you’d like to connect directly with the IR-4 team to discuss your crop protection needs, the IR-4 team encourages you to contact your Regional Field Coordinator (RFC).

Project Request forms and Grower & Extension Surveys must be submitted by the close of business on August 29, 2025 to be considered at the 2025 Environmental Horticulture Workshop.

IR-4 will host the next biennial Environmental Horticulture Workshop from October 7-8, 2025, in Kansas City, MO. At this event, stakeholders involved in the Environmental Horticulture Program will collaborate to set national and regional research priorities for the next two-year cycle. Register and learn more here.