California registers insecticide for sucking pests

The California Department of Pesticide Regulation has registered Movento insecticide from Bayer CropScience of Research Triangle Park, N.C., for use on citrus, pome and stone fruit, grapes, tree nuts and vegetables. The federal Environmental Protection Agency registered the product earlier this month. Arizona also registered the product, and several other state registrations are pending, so check to see if your state is one of those.

Movento — which contains the active ingredient spirotetramat — is a foliar-applied insecticide that provides two-way systemic activity within plants. It moves upward into the leaves as well as downward into the roots.

The insecticide targets sucking insects, such as aphids, mealybugs, whiteflies and scales by controlling the immatures and sterilizing mature females. Yet it is easy on beneficials, according to a press release.

Beth Grafton-Cardwell, an entomologist and director of the University of California's Lindcove Research and Extension Center, has conducted research on the product for California red scale, cotton aphid and citrus leafminer control. She says it has shown excellent efficacy against these pests. It also appears to have activity against red mite, but not as much against citricola scale.

For red scale control, Grafton-Cardwell says you need to apply it just before the second or third generation of crawlers. She used three different water volumes in her trials — 250, 500 and 750 gallons per acre. Of those, 500 gallons per acre worked the best for red scale. She also recommends using a penetrating and spreading adjuvant.

An application at petal fall for citrus thrips does not control California red scale, Grafton-Cardwell says, citing her research.

For more information, visit http://www.bayercropscienceus.com/products_and_seeds/insecticides/movento.html.

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