What are the four categories of insecticide use defined by the Xerces Society?

• A. Agriculture, nursery, landscape, and non-crop
• B. Agriculture, Nursery, Landscape, and Non-crop
• C. Agriculture, Nursery, Garden, and Non-crop
• D. Agriculture, Nursery, Urban, and Non-crop

Answer: (B)

The concept here is how the Xerces Society classifies where insecticides are used to think about pollinator exposure across different environments. They define four settings: agriculture (large-scale crop production), nursery (plants grown for sale or distribution), landscape (managed outdoor spaces like parks, golf courses, campuses, and home landscapes), and non-crop (areas outside crop production, such as roadsides, natural areas, urban greens, and similar sites). This four-part framework helps researchers, land managers, and policymakers plan and implement pollinator-friendly pest management relevant to each context, recognizing that exposure and risks can differ between farms, plant-production facilities, managed outdoor spaces, and other non-crop areas.

The other options don’t fit because they use terms that aren’t the official categories used by Xerces. For example, “garden” is not the term they use for the landscape category, and “urban” isn’t listed as a separate category from landscape. The four categories that align with Xerces’ framework are agriculture, nursery, landscape, and non-crop.