Sivanto Prime applications are proving to be effective for growers in combatting pest pressures in multiple different crops. Farmers have been able to gain control of sugarcane aphid in sorghum crops using the material, while trials along the Russian River have produced positive results in combatting Pierce’s Disease in grapes.
“The whole treatment area has over 4,000 vines and going into this season, 2020, we’ve identified about 116 existing infections and then last year we found only four new infections,” said Paul Walgenbach, Technical Development Representative for Bayer Crop Science. “So, that’s an infection rate that’s just a fraction of a percent, it’s pretty impressive.”
Blue-green sharpshooters are one of the vectors of Pierce’s Disease, feeding on infected vines and then transmitting it elsewhere. The pest has a strong association with overwintering in riparian areas and typically becomes active in vineyards when temperatures begin to warm up in the Spring. Sivanto applications are shown to reduce the feeding time of the sharpshooters and reduce the likelihood of transmitting the disease.
“It reduces what we call the ‘acquisition time.’ It delays feeding so long that the insect has really lost the potential to pick up as much inoculum as it might had there been no treatment there,” Walgenbach noted. “In fact, when you compare it to many other neonic-type materials that also reduce feeding activity, this reduces it much, much faster and it reduces it for a long period of time as well.”
SIVANTO MANAGES SUGARCANE APHID PRESSURE
Sugarcane aphid became a significant problem for sorghum producers in 2016, as more broad-spectrum insecticides were proving to be ineffective. Agronomy and Nutrient Management Advisor for Fresno, Kings and Tulare Counties, Nick Clark noted that over the past few years the work of many different collaborators helped to implement best practices for managing the pest to bring populations to manageable levels.
“We’ve done some work to demonstrate that the registered insecticide that we have, Sivanto, or flupyradifurone, is very effective against sugarcane aphid and we recommend using it whenever the aphid gets to a treatable threshold,” said Clark. “We’ve also done a little bit of work that was supported by the Sorghum Checkoff program to look at alternative modes of application of Sivanto. So, trying to give growers the option of doing some soil-applied treatments with Sivanto and we found those to be rather effective as well.”
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