UN WHO field trials on Bayer CropScience’s insecticidal mosquito net, LifeNet, have confirmed that it exceeds the requirement of effectiveness after 20 washes. Tests in Tanzania, Benin and India showed that LifeNet was effective after 30 washes, with regeneration after washing within one day, Bayer points out. LifeNet incorporates the pyrethroid insecticide, deltamethrin, in polypropylene fibres. The UN WHO issued an interim recommendation earlier this year (Agrow No 615, p 28).

The ISO Technical Committee on Common Names for Pesticides has provisionally approved three new active ingredient names. Bayer CropScience’s insecticide, flupyradifurone, is being developed under the code name, BYI02960, according to the Compendium of Pesticide Common Names (CPCN). Bayer’s triazinylsulfonylurea herbicide, iofensulfuron, will be sold as the sodium salt, iofensulfuron-sodium (BCS-AA10579). The insecticide, flometoquin, from Japanese companies Meiji Seika and Nippon Kayaku is ...

Argentine authorities are claiming a “significant advance” in results of an eradication programme in the north-east against Mediterranean fruit flies (Ceratitis capitata) and South American flies (Anastrepha fraterculus) on citrus crops. The national animal and plant health inspection service, the Senasa, has worked with farmers, applying Dow AgroSciences’ insecticide, spinosad, on over 16,000 ha in the region. The service chose the “bio-insecticide” for its low environmental toxicity, it says. ...

Argentine authorities are to carry out and finance trials of pesticides on minor crops. The active ingredients to be trialled are among those that have not been approved for use on such crops. The national animal and plant health inspection service, the Senasa, has agreed terms on a deal with the Argentine university the Universidad de Buenos Aires, to implement a series of actions required to initiate efficacy and residue trials. They will be carried out on nine of the herb and vegetable ...

Syngenta and UK-based not-for-profit organisation Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC - Liverpool) have launched a project to develop a new insecticidal active ingredient for public health applications. The project is meant to end the “drought of new public health products” for mosquito control, which has arisen because the profiles of agrochemical insecticides often do not match those required for public health application. It aims to especially target mosquito strains that have ...

Bayer CropScience has agreed a three-year deal with a UK-based not-for-profit vector control company to develop new active ingredients for public health use. The agreement with Innovative Vector Control Consortium (IVCC - Liverpool) aims to develop products effective against mosquitoes that transmit diseases such as malaria but are resistant to conventional insecticides. Bayer will supply its “extensive range of substances and screening capabilities”, it says. Substances showing promise in ...

The US EPA is seeking views on its assessments of the benefits of the organochlorine insecticide, endosulfan, and on a petition to ban the active ingredient. The environmentalist groups, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Pesticides Action Network, filed the petition last year in response to the Agency’s 2007 risk assessments on endosulfan (Agrow No 532, p 14). The groups sought the cancellation of all uses and the revocation of all tolerances on the grounds of endosulfan’s toxicity, ...

The US EPA has issued its first endangered species protection bulletin through the new online system, “BulletinsLive!”. It has imposed local use restrictions on the insecticide, methoxyfenozide, on cranberries in 15 counties in Wisconsin to protect the Karner blue butterfly and its habitats. Dow AgroSciences markets methoxyfenozide as Intrepid for use on cotton and a range of fruit and vegetable crops. The enforceable use restrictions prohibit the use of methoxyfenozide in specified areas ...