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Potato growers are set to lose a key insecticide active after European plant protection regulators voted to withdraw registration for the granular systemic insecticide/nematicide ethoprophos.
Marketed by Certis, the active is found in the granular soil-applied product Mocap 15G.
The product can no longer be sold to growers by 21 September 2019
The product is seen as an important active for reducing the impact of soil-borne pests such as wireworm.
The active is also used to control potato cyst nematode.
The product can no longer be sold to growers by 21 September 2019.
Potato growers then have until 21 March 21 2020. Other chemical means to minimise damage are limited.
Wireworm
Wireworms, the larvae of click beetles (Elateridae), are soil-inhabiting pests.
They are typically found in grassland, but are also found in cereal ground where grassland is in the rotation.
Potatoes and other veg crops are particularly prone to attacks from the pest.
Wireworms bore holes in tubers, which reduces quality significantly. Even at low pest thresholds, wireworms can cause economic damage.
An adult click beetle lays between 200 and 400 eggs around late April and early may.
The larvae hatch within three to seven weeks and spend the next three to five years feeding on roots and germinating seeds and moving up and down in the soil profile.
Wireworms go through a short pupation, about one month long, and emerge as adult click beetles in the soil.
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