AgroPages-DuPont's Avatar insecticide authorized for application on 38 crops-Agricultural news

Launched by DuPont Crop Protection nearly two years ago for soybean, corn and cotton, insecticide Avatar® (indoxacarb) recently received the regulating agencies' authorization for application on other 38 fruits and vegetable crops: cress, pumpkin, zucchini, chard, lettuce, plum, potato, eggplant, broccoli, chicory, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, Chinese cabbage, chayote, spinach, jelly, apple, melon, millet, mustard, nectarine, loquat, cucumber, pear, peach, pepper, chili, okra, arugula, sorghum, tomato and grape, among others.

Avatar is a high efficiency insecticide and has good residual control, being selective to the non-target insects. The product is the only representative of the chemical class of oxadiazinas, having a different mode of action, which makes it a strategic tool associated with Integrated Plague Management (IPM). According to DuPont, Avatar will allow producers to rely on a stronger and more efficient program for resistance management.

The product controls plagues that can potentially harm yields of fruits and vegetables, such as the tomato leafminer, the potato tuber moth and the Fall Armyworm; the latter is common to several crops, such as lettuce, cress, endive, eggplant, chicory, spinach and arugula.

DuPont Avatar controls neonates which hatch and consume chemical on the egg casing. Any larvae that emerge are controlled. Avatar causes paralysis in pests by blocking their nerve transmission, and they stop feeding from zero to four hours after exposure, so the crop protection is rapid.

Death usually occurs within two to three days. Depending on the crop, the particular pest species and prevailing climatic conditions, residual crop protection is maintained from seven to 14 days.