Insecticide seed treatment against corn leafhopper: helping protect grain yield in critical plant growth stages.

Background: The corn leafhopper, Dalbulus maidis (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), spreads maize stunt pathogens and requires timely and effective crop protection. We determined the interaction between maize phenology and the vector feeding/infection period by stunt pathogens with the residual efficacy of neonicotinoid insecticidal seed treatments. Greenhouse- and field-grown maize plants, seed-treated with clothianidin or imidacloprid insecticides, were infested during seven growth stages with corn leafhoppers reared under controlled conditions on maize plants displaying infection symptoms by both spiroplasma (corn stunt spiroplasma, Spiroplasma kunkelii) and phytoplasma (maize bushy phytoplasma) pathogens.

Seed treatment for managing fall armyworm as a defoliator and cutworm on maize: plant protection, residuality, and the insect life history.

Background: The highly polyphagous and invasive fall armyworm (FAW, Spodoptera frugiperda) can feed on different plant parts of host crops, damaging whorls and stalks in early maize growth stages. Systemic insecticide seed treatment (IST) could minimize this damage, although the residual efficacy may vary with the plant tissue damaged. Using damage rating scales and artificial infestation in controlled conditions, we determined the potential of IST against FAW attacking maize whorl leaves or the stalk base.

Rethinking biorational insecticides for pest management: unintended effects and consequences.

Biorational insecticides are composed of natural products, including animals, plants, microbes, and minerals, or are their derivates. The use of biorational products for the management of insect pests has grown intensively in recent years, which has increased their popularity and share on the insecticide global market. Much of these recent increases in the use of biorational insecticides has been derived from the generalized perception that conventional insecticides have undesirable ecological and human health impacts.