Pesticide approved

The Environmental Protection Agency has approved an emergency exemption that allows farmers to use the insecticide dinotefuran on tree fruit to combat the brown marmorated stink bug.

Fruit growers in Virginia and six other mid-Atlantic states can begin spraying with products containing the pesticide before September and October, when extensive harm from the bugs is possible.

"We are committed to continuing to work closely with the agricultural community to address this very serious problem," said Steve Owens, assistant administrator of EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.

Dr. J. Christopher Bergh, an entomologist from Virginia Tech, petitioned the EPA back in April to allow emergency use of the insecticide. ('Wanted: Dead,' 4/26)

The EPA allows such exemptions to the permitted uses of a pesticide if it determines that an emergency condition exists. The exemption lasts no longer than one year but applicants can seek additional approvals. Before approval, EPA must be able to support the use from a health and safety standpoint.

Dinotefuran is more effective than most pesticides and the stink bugs have proved stubbornly difficult to kill. In lab studies, a portion of the stink bugs appeared to be dead after the chemicals were applied. Within a few days, a majority of the bugs recovered. To be lethal, the pesticides must directly contact the bugs; they have no residual effectiveness.

"We do not view approval of the product as a silver bullet," Bergh said. "It's another tool. A good tool, but it won't make or break the 2011 season."

Dinotefuran is an ingredient in two commercial insecticides, Venom from Valent BioSciences Corp., a unit of Japan's Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd., and Scorpion from Gowan Co. LLC of Yuma, Ariz. The EPA currently allows its use on vegetables, grapes, potatoes and cotton, but it is used in Japan and other Asian countries to control brown marmorated stink bugs on a wider variety of crops, including orchard fruits.

The EPA also approved products for use on organic production that contain azadirachtin and pyrethrins, which are derived from botanical ingredients.

This year, five orchards in central and northern Virginia will also test the effectiveness of other permitted insecticides on stink bugs, Bergh said. "By the end of the 2011 season, we will know much more than we do now."

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