Nimitz Poised for California Registration

By: Kyle Buchoff, Cal Ag Today Reporter

Researchers are developing effective ways to control crop-destroying worm-like nematodes. One product, Nimitz, is not yet registered for use in California but is showing great promise in vegetables.

“We’ve been working with a number of different products over a number of years, and actually have two products; one is Nimitz, the other is still in development.,” said UC Riverside Cooperative Extension Associate Nematologist Antoon Ploeg. “Both look very promising in all three crops that we have been testing: tomatoes, melons, and carrots, so for us it’s been an exciting time!”

Ploeg and his team found remarkable results from nematode pressure plots. Non-treated plants were heavily galled and those that were treated with Nimitz showed a 95% reduction in galls.

“Something is going on here that makes us very excited, especially because the product has low toxicity,” said an enthusiastic Ploeg. “It has only a ‘Caution’ label, and has had the original restricted-entry interval (REI) of 24 hours reduced to zero.”

Nimitz has been approved by the EPA, but has not yet been approved for use in California.