Fortunately most pests and diseases don’t infest our crops all year round but tend to have cycles of activity. This cyclical phenomenon offers farmers and pest control practitioners the opportunity to employ a variety of tools and strategies to control them in sustainable ways.
Let’s examine the persistent European Red mite as an example. Their lifecycle starts as overwintering eggs, laid during late summer and autumn on rough bark, spurs, and the nodes of canes in grapes. Fortunately, during this period, trees and vines are entering a state of dormancy with very little sensitive growth to be protected. To target them, it's recommended you use products like STIFLE Dormant Spray Oil, a less refined but highly effective mineral spray oil.
For control of mealybug, you can also use mineral oil as the carrier for other insecticides to broaden the spectrum of control. STIFLE Dormant Spray Oil is the least refined and most economical of Agrion’s range of mineral spray oils. As its name suggests it is suitable to control a range of pests when crops such as grapes, pome and stone fruits are dormant.
As temperatures warm up in spring, the small larvae start migrating to new shoots and foliage where they feed on leaves. They grow through several nymphal stages towards adulthood. Under warm conditions, the entire lifecycle can be completed in as little as 10 to 14 days, and five to ten generations per season are not uncommon. With plenty of new and tender growth on the plant in the form of buds, shoots and new leaves, the mineral spray oil requirement changes to a more refined product like SUMMER Insecticidal Oil.
With a lesser amount of impurities, SUMMER Insecticidal Oil is safe on the tender new growth and suitable for use from spring through to summer.
SUMMER Insecticidal Oil is registered for use on pome and stone fruits, custard apples, grapes, citrus fruits, bananas, avocados, mangoes and kiwifruits.
Mineral spray oils have other attributes that make them indispensable in pest control programs for tree crops and vines. They are considered to be excellent IPM options in spray programs. This is due to their physical mode of action by suffocation, meaning they can be applied several times during a single season without the risk of chemical residues. At the same time, their non-chemical mode of action significantly reduces the development of resistance in pest populations. With as many as 5 to 10 generations per year, mites in particular are notorious for developing resistance quickly. Mineral oils are therefore commonly used in alternation with chemical modes of action to preserve reliable miticides.
Since mineral oils don’t leave toxic residues once the spray has dried, beneficial insects are able to return to the crop quicker without being affected.
During summer, as the fruit matures, the requirement for the mineral oil component in the spray program changes again. The combination of hot and humid conditions presents the risk of fruit spotting and blemishing when high humidity delays evaporation of large spray droplets or splashing. When the concentrated spray droplet remains on the surface of the fruit for prolonged periods, burn or pitting can occur. This is mainly due to small amounts of impurities in the mineral oil.
Enter BIOPEST Paraffinic Oil, Australia’s most refined mineral spray oil. BIOPEST is manufactured from pharmaceutical-grade base oil and contains less than one per cent impurities. In a comparative study conducted at the Queensland Department of Agriculture & Fisheries in 2023, BIOPEST Paraffinic Oil was demonstrated to have superior crop safety under simulated adverse (hot and humid) conditions across a range of crops on its label.
Its extensive label includes all the uses covered by STIFLE Dormant Spray Oil and SUMMER Insecticidal Oil plus control of mealybug, fungal diseases, olives, nut crops and an extended range of stone fruit.
BIOPEST is the premium mineral crop oil with outstanding crop safety during summer when unpredictable adverse spray conditions are likely to present. Don’t risk quality downgrades from the use of a lesser grade spray oil.
This article was written by Agrion Crop Solutions for Seasons.
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