DuPont insecticides Assail receive expanded labels

A broad-spectrum insecticide used against various horticultural crop pests has picked up an expanded label for use on more crops and against more insects.

DuPont's Assail, a Group 4 acetamiprid insecticide, has been granted an expansion that will allow its use against aphids in sweet corn crops and against tarnished plant bug and alfalfa plant bug in seed alfalfa.

Neither crop had previously been included on the Assail label. In blueberries, for which Assail had previously been approved against blueberry maggot and aphids, the product is now cleared for control of blueberry flea beetle, blueberry thrips, cherry fruitworm, cranberry fruitworm, and adult strawberry rootworm, and for suppression of blueberry spanworm.

Grape growers, meanwhile, who have used Assail to control leafhoppers, may now also use it for control of grape berry moth, grape phylloxera and Japanese beetle, DuPont said in a release Monday.

Pome fruit growers can now use Assail for control of apple maggot, European apple sawfly, green fruitworm, mullein bug and plum curculio, on top of other controls previously approved in pome fruits such as for aphids, leafhopper and oriental fruit moth.

Other crops already on the Assail label for control of various pests include bushberries, cole crops, field peppers, field tomatoes, ground cherries, leafy brassica greens, leafy vegetables, potatoes, stone fruits, strawberries and tobacco.