Flubendiamide The Arizona produce industry received some good news and some bad news recently. First, the bad news. Earlier this year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a notice with the intent to cancel flubendiamide products (Belt SC and Vetica) due to potential risks to aquatic invertebrates. Bayer Crop Science was asked to voluntarily cancel all flubendiamide registrations, but subsequently rejected the EPA’s decision and requested a hearing from Agency’s Administrative Law Judge and Environmental Appeals Board (EAB). Unfortunately, the Appeals Board has upheld the earlier EPA decision to cancel the registration of flubendiamide. So, as of today, Belt and Vetica can no longer be sold by Bayer or Nichino in the U.S., but the EAB decided that it would allow distributors and retailers to continue to distribute and sell existing stocks of the two products remaining in inventory. Thus PCAs and growers can continue using remaining product in inventory. This final decision is unfortunate since both Belt and Vetica are important cost-effective alternatives for worm control in produce and melon crops. In fact, among the diamide chemistries, Belt and Vetica were the most commonly used products in fall lettuce. For more information, see this Flubendiamide EAB Decision.

Sulfoxaflor The good news is that it appears that sulfoxaflor (Sequoia) will soon be registered and available for use on our leafy vegetable and brassica crops this winter. As you may recall the EPA was forced to cancel the sulfoxaflor registration in Nov 2015 based on a court ruling that the agency did not have enough scientific data to sufficiently demonstrate that sulfoxaflor had no unreasonable adverse effects to honey bees. Since then, EPA has been re-evaluating the sulfoxaflor label amended by Dow Agrosciences that now reduces or eliminates exposure to pollinators, and is proposing to unconditionally grant a Section 3 registration for certain crops including leafy vegetables and brassicas. Unfortunately, citrus, cotton and cucurbits are not included in the proposed registration. EPA concluded that sulfoxaflor will likely replace applications of pesticides that are at a higher risk to humans and other non-target organisms (including pollinators) and delaying its registration would delay these benefits. Before the cancellation of sulfoxaflor, Sequoia was used extensively for aphid management on winter and spring produce. For more information on the proposed label go to Proposed Registration of Sulfoxaflor.

Name this Insect Pest. - Hawaiian Beet Webworm

Remember, When in Doubt . . . . . “SCOUT”

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To contact John Palumbo go to:jpalumbo@ag.arizona.edu

For questions or comments on any of the topics please contact Marco Pena at the Yuma Agricultural Center.
College of Agriculture, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ.