Australia has become the first nation in the world to register afidopyropen, an insecticide that aids in the control of aphids and silverleaf whitefly in vegetables and cotton.

As covered under the label for BASF’s Versys insecticide, this active can be used on brassica crops, celery, cucurbits, fruiting vegetables, parsley, and leafy vegetables and brassica leafy vegetables to control green peach aphid, cabbage aphid, currant lettuce aphid, melon aphid and silverleaf whitefly.

Hort Innovation also has a number of other projects under way to provide data that can expand this label to other vegetable crops, including carrots, bulb vegetables, sweet corn, green beans, snow and sugar snap peas, and stalk and stem vegetables including rhubarb and artichoke.

For full details on the registered on-label uses of afidopyropen as the active in BASF’s Versys insecticide, search the APVMA’s public database of registered chemicals for ‘Versys’.

If you’d like to contribute your experience and agrichemical needs to assist AUSVEG and Hort Innovation in prioritising the gaps in Australia’s agrichemical access, and subsequently help Hort Innovation direct research and development funding for crop protection purposes, take part in the National Pest Survey.

This post appeared in the AUSVEG Weekly Update published 8 May 2018. Subscribe to the Update using our online form to receive the latest industry news in your inbox every week!