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Sign-ups open for 2013 pesticide registry

MADISON — Find out when neighbors are using pesticides on their lawns and get an advanced warning when applications will be made when you sign up for the Landscape Pesticide Registry for 2013. You can request that companies notify you when they are going to apply pesticides to lawns, trees and shrubs on the block where you live, or on blocks immediately adjacent to yours.

From Nov. 1 through Feb. 1, you can register online at http://datcpservices.wisconsin.gov. Participation in the registry is free. Signing up is a two-step process:

Register, providing your email address, street address and telephone number, and set up a password.

Enter the addresses for which you want notification. Unless you complete both steps, businesses will be unable to notify you. The password will provide you access to see what addresses you've entered and edit that information.

If you signed up for the registry last year, you will receive an email from the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection reminding you to renew their participation. You will not have to re-enter addresses that you entered last year, but you will have to indicate that you want to keep them on your notification list.

You may continue adding addresses until Feb. 1, when the registry will be closed to the public so department staff can review it for incorrect and ineligible addresses. It will take effect March 15, when pesticide applicators will be able to search it to find out if any of their clients' addresses have been listed.

The registry applies only to professional landscape applications. However, homeowners or landlords who do their own applications are not covered by the notification requirements, nor are applications to the inside or outside of buildings. The registry does not allow for notification of pesticide use in agriculture, or for you to be notified about applications around your workplace or your children's school or day care center.

The registry has been in use since 1993. It first went to an online system in 2011, saving taxpayers about $35,000 a year in printing and mailing costs. Last year, about 830 people registered and requested notification of pesticide applications on about 8,400 properties.

Dane County and Milwaukee County have the highest participation levels. In Dane County, about 320 people listed nearly 3,000 properties for notification last year. In Milwaukee County, 120 people registered and listed almost 1,800 properties.