AgroPages-BASF to launch two afidopyropen products in China-Agricultural news

In 2019, BASF plans to launch two products in China, named Yingwei and Yinglei, which are both based upon the active ingredient afidopyropen. Yingwei is an afidopyropen 5% DC, mainly used for control of aphid piercing-sucking mouthparts, while Yinglei is an afidopyropen avermectin 75 g/L DC (afidopyropen. avermectin = 2:1), applied for the control of whitefly piercing-sucking mouthparts.

BASF’s afidopyropen was discovered from biological fermentation, which is a propene compound, being a new insecticide for control of piercing-sucking mouthparts. It has the features of fast action, high efficiency and broad spectrum. Its ingredient is included by Insecticide Resistance Action Committee (IRAC) as the first of the Group 9D, as well as the sole insecticidal ingredient, which has no cross resistance to the existing insect pest management system.

Afidopyropen interferes with the chordotonal organ of the insect, which causes insects to lose their reaction to gravity, balance, sound, position and movement, resulting in epicophosis and loss of direction, further leading to food and water loss, and thus causes insect deaths from hunger.

Afidopyropen effectively reduces viral and bacterial diseases transmitted by insect vector, being very effective in the control of aphid and whitefly, with a long-lasting effect. It is also effective against different stages of insects (ineffective to ovum). It has an outstanding foliar infiltration capacity, and is resistant to rain wash due to its unique formulation.

The launch of afidopyropen provides a tooling for alternate pesticide applications and a new chance of mixture, which particularly fits to control resistance-inclined insect pests, such as peach aphid and cotton aphid. It is also very effective in control of insect pests that are resistant to neonicotinoids, organophosphates, pyrethroids and pymetrozine, while being low-toxic to mammals, fish, birds, insect predators and honeybees. It is also safe to non-target arthropod species, such as predatory mite, parasitic wasps, lacewing, trichogramma and ladybirds.

Experimental results show that aphids treated by Yingwei have an obviously faster intoxication response, when compared with contrast agents. Its application for control of tomato myzus persicae can effectively reduce the spread of tomato TuYv by above 90%.

This year, BASF has released products in Australia and India that contain the active ingredient afidopyropen.