AgroPages-US EPA seeks sulfoxaflor exemption for plant bug-Agricultural news

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The U.S. EPA has received specific exemption requests from the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA), the Arkansas State Plant Board (ASPB) and the Mississippi Departments of Agriculture and Commerce (MDAC) to use Dow AgroSciences’ insecticide sulfoxaflor (Transform) to treat up to 168,750 acres of cotton in Tennessee, up to 320,000 of acres of cotton fields in Arkansas and up to 337,500 acres of cotton fields in Mississippi to control tarnished plant bug. Comments for this public notice must be received on or before May 20, 2016.

Sulfoxaflor was previously registered by EPA for use on cotton. However, the registration was vacated by the Ninth Circuit Court in the fall of 2015 as a result of a lawsuit against EPA, claiming the registration did not adequately protect honeybees.

For several years, plant bugs have been ranked as the second most damaging cotton pest, with the Mid-South facing particular challenges with controlling the pest. Documentation of plant bugs resistant to multiple insecticides has created extreme concern that, without sulfoxaflor, producers will not have sufficient modes of action to manage damaging plant bug populations.