Dakota Farmer

NDSU Extension shares options to chlorpyrifos, a commonly used pesticide in the Dakotas.

October 1, 2021

4 Min Read
Worm in soil
PEST CONTROL: Following an EPA ruling revoking tolerances for chlorpyrifos, producers must work to fill the hole in their pest management programs. VladK213/Getty Images

Following a final rule release by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revoking all tolerances for the pesticide chlorpyrifos, farmers are left to find new pest management options in the Dakotas.

EPA’s ruling that no amount of the pesticide is “safe” for food production effectively removes it from the market. NDSU Extension answers questions about chlorpyrifos and remaining options for pest management:

How widespread is the use of chlorpyrifos in North Dakota? Chlorpyrifos is registered for use in a wide variety of crops grown in North Dakota, including field corn, alfalfa, soybeans, sugarbeets, sunflower, wheat and dry edible beans. 

Chlorpyrifos is probably best recognized by its original brand name Lorsban. There are liquid, water-soluble powder (WSP) and granular formulations now available under a number of other brand names like Govern, Warhawk, Yuma and other generics. Chlorpyrifos is also available in premix products, such as Cobalt Advanced, that also contain a pyrethroid insecticide.

Registered uses vary by crop. For example, registered uses in soybean include granular at-plant applications and postemergence foliar liquid applications. In dry edible beans, chlorpyrifos can be used as a seed treatment slurry (WSP formulation) or as a preplant broadcast application, but it cannot be used for postemergence foliar applications. In summary, chlorpyrifos is widely used for control of many insect pests of field crops in North Dakota.

What insects do most North Dakota farmers control with this technology? Chlorpyrifos is a broad-spectrum insecticide that controls a wide variety of soil and aboveground insect and mite pests.

Soil pests include seed corn maggot, corn rootworm larvae, sugarbeet root maggot larvae, white grubs and wireworms. Examples of aboveground pests include alfalfa weevil, aphids, armyworms, cutworms, foliage-feeding caterpillars, grasshoppers, leafhoppers, lygus bugs, corn rootworm adults, sugarbeet root maggot adults, banded sunflower moth, sunflower head moth, red sunflower seed weevil, wheat midge and spider mites. Chlorpyrifos is also available as a residual bin spray and grain storage protectant against stored grain insect pests like red flour beetles and rice weevils.

Other characteristics of chlorpyrifos is its short residual activity, usually about three to five days. It also is volatile and is able to penetrate closed canopies and crop floral structures better than other insecticides.

What, if any, other pesticide options are there for growers? Most crops have several alternatives for controlling insect and spider mite pests. Broad-spectrum insecticides include neonicotinoid seed treatments, granular and liquid pyrethroid formulations for at-plant use, and neonicotinoids, pyrethroids and other organophosphates for foliar use.

There are also several newer alternative chemistries that have specific activity against certain insect pests:

Diamides. Brands such as Prevathon and Exirel are for foliage-feeding caterpillars like thistle caterpillars and green cloverworms in soybeans, or banded sunflower moths and sunflower head moth in sunflowers.

Pyropenes, sulfoximines and butenolides. The respective brands of Sefina Inscalis, Transform and Sivanto help control soybean aphids.

Miticides, including abamectin and etoxazole. Respective brands Agri-Mek and Zeal are registered for use in soybean and corn to control spider mites, but these products are more expensive than chlorpyrifos.

Some crops such as sunflower have only a few chemistries available for use. Red sunflower seed weevil is best controlled using straight chlorpyrifos or a chlorpyrifos plus a pyrethroid premix, because chlorpyrifos is better able to penetrate flower bracts and other floral structures where the larvae are hiding.

Due to an increase in growers’ complaints about pyrethroid failures to control red sunflower seed weevils in some areas of South Dakota, pyrethroids alone may not give adequate control. Currently, no other alternative chemistries exist to control red sunflower seed weevil. The development of pyrethroid resistance is a major concern with the weevil and other insects like soybean aphids, spider mites and diamondback moth.

Pyrethroids are the most widely used mode of action for foliar insecticides, and that comes with an increased risk of insecticide resistance. Resistance to pyrethroids has occurred in soybean aphids in multiple states (Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota and eastern North Dakota).

While other chemistries to control pyrethroid-resistant soybean aphids are effective, the loss of chlorpyrifos means one less tool in the insect control arsenal. This may lead to overreliance on pyrethroids and pyrethroid resistance developing in other insect pests.

How does this change farmers’ insect management? The loss of chlorpyrifos forces farmers to use alternative chemistries. In the case of spider mites, where multiple foliar applications may be necessary and rotating products with different modes of action prevents resistance, the loss of chlorpyrifos may force growers to use a more expensive miticide, which increases their overall monetary input in the crop.

 It is vital that farmers practice sound integrated pest management principles regarding insecticide use, and to adopt non-chemical IPM strategies, such as crop rotation, host plant resistance and conversation of biological control agents. Scouting fields regularly and using established economic thresholds is more important than ever now.

An important IPM strategy when more than one insecticide application is needed for control of a specific pest is to rotate to a new mode of action to help prevent the development of insecticide resistance and to keep our current insecticides in the IPM toolbox.

Source: North Dakota State University Extension is solely responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.

 

 

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