Equipment cleaning

Rinse your sprayer thoroughly after you have finished spraying for the day to remove or dilute any remaining agrichemical.

Water is usually used for this task - what you are trying to do is dilute any remaining agrichemical to non-hazardous concentrations.

Spray the mixture either onto:

• the target crop, remembering to avoid exceeding any maximum residue levels set for the crop being sprayed, or
• waste ground, but only if:
• the effective application rate is less than the recommended application rate on the product's label
• runoff does not occur
• no spray mixture enters any surface water (eg. streams or ponds).

Decontamination

You may wish to remove or neutralise any remaining agrichemical in your sprayer when you are changing the agrichemical mix (eg. from herbicide to insecticide) or when sending equipment for maintenance. The decontamination method you should follow depends on the agrichemical you are trying to remove.

For example:

• For most insecticides/fungicides, 125 g powder detergent per 100 litres of water (or sufficient liquid detergent to make a 'sudsy' solution) followed by agitation, flushing and rinse will be sufficient.
• Organophosphate and carbamate insecticides are best neutralised by adding household 880 aqueous ammonia at 1 litre per 100 litres of water.

Neutralising herbicides is more complex and strategies for various types of herbicides can be found in NZS8409:2004 (p. 188).