WITH a spate of horticultural chemicals banned in recent months, a new insecticide is here to fill the void for vegetable growers.
New registrations for BELT insecticide now include a large range of crops, including minor crops.BELT 480 SC was developed by Bayer CropScience and is a fast-acting, long-lasting application for the control of various chewing (lepidopteran) pests.
Bayer CropScience product manager Lachlan Bird said BELT was proven to be effective on difficult-to-control pest populations such as diamondback moth, cabbage white butterfly, cluster caterpillar, heliothis, soybean looper and tomato leaf miner/potato moth and was highly compatible with Integrated Pest Management systems.
"The registration of BELT in a selection of minor crops provides the various industries with a long-term management tool for the control of key lepidopteran pests, rather than reliance on short-term permits,'' Mr Bird said.
Prior to the new registration, BELT was registered for use on brassica vegetables, brassica leafy vegetables, fruiting vegetables, leafy vegtetables and potatoes.
Bayer CropScience said BELT was very active and stable to UV radiation with long residual effect.
There is currently no cross-resistance to BELT in insect populations known to be resistant to other insecticide groups.
Peak industry body AusVeg spokesman William Churchill said pesticides were part of farming and he wanted to see management options remain available for growers.
"If a grower of minor crops now has a product available to them that he didn't have before to keep pests out of his paddock then we can count that as a win,'' Mr Churchill said.
"One of the biggest problems horticulture has is a diminishing number of options available to growers.
"If the industry loses too many more options then we face the possibility of chemical rotation issues.''
The new crops and pests that have been added to the BELT label include:
- Cucurbits (including cucumbers, melons, pumpkin, squash, zucchini) in field and protected cropping systems heliothis, cucumber moth
- Chia - heliothis
- Herbs in field and protected cropping systems - diamondback moth, cabbage white butterfly, cluster caterpillar, heliothis
- Root and tuber vegetables - diamondback moth, cabbage white butterfly, cluster caterpillar, potato moth (tomato leafminer), heliothis
- Stalk and stem vegetables - heliothis
- Protected cropping systems for brassica leafy vegetables and leafy vegetables
